Blades’ Sidorov excited to sign deal with Anaheim Ducks

It has been all smiles around the Saskatoon Blades since they dropped Game 1 of their first-round WHL playoff series against the Prince Albert Raiders last Thursday.

After three straight wins, the Blades are now just one win away from advancing to the second round of the WHL playoffs — and now one of their own has taken the next step to hopefully living out his NHL dream.

On Wednesday, leading goal-scorer Egor Sidorov signed a three-year entry-level contract with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks.

“It was a fun day,” Sidorov said when asked about signing his first professional contract. “We win (Game 4), I sign (and) I’m happy and excited. I’ve just got to keep working and keep going.

“(My NHL aspirations) started when I was young. It was a dream to get drafted and sign and play in the NHL.”

Since arriving in Saskatoon at the start of the 2021-22 season, Sidorov has been nothing short of sensational for the Blades.

Over his three regular seasons with the club, Sidorov has registered 113 goals and 199 points in just 177 games. That makes the Belarusian the highest-scoring European player in Blades history.

He has four goals and two assists in the first four games of the series against P.A. The Blades can end the series Friday, when Game 5 goes at SaskTel Centre at 7 p.m.

While Sidorov on paper has made things look easy, his isn’t your typical story of playing junior hockey, getting noticed, getting drafted and continuing on with his career.

The 19-year-old product of Vitebsk, Belarus has had to endure a lot more compared than most teenagers.

He came to Saskatoon at 17 without knowing how to speak English. He then got stuck in Canada for almost a year because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

When he turned 18 and had hopes of getting selected by an NHL team in his draft year, he went undrafted and had an uncertain future ahead of him.

But his hard work the following season continued and that led to him being selected by the Ducks in the third round (85th overall) of the 2023 NHL draft.

Sidorov credits his teammates, his coaches and the Blades organization for getting him to the point where he could sign a contract.

“This for years was very important (for me),” said Sidorov, who had 50 goals and 38 assists in the 2023-24 regular season. “(I have a) great team, great teammates (and) great coaching staff who supported me for years and I’m really appreciative of that.”

Sidorov said he and his agent knew the Ducks were going to sign him to a contract over the last couple weeks, but they just needed to put pen to paper and get it done.

After signing the contract, Sidorov didn’t get a chance to talk to Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek, but he did get a text from player development co-ordinator Ryan Getzlaf, who welcomed Sidorov to the organization and told him to keep playing simple and a 200-foot game.

Over the course of the 2023-24 campaign, Blades head coach Brennan Sonne has done nothing but praise the 19-year-old veteran. On Thursday, he couldn’t have been happier for Sidorov.

“I’m just really happy for him and super-proud of him,” Sonne said. “He’s earned it all the way. I love that kid like a son and just super-happy for him.”

Sidorov doesn’t think signing the contract will be a distraction as the playoffs continue.

He also spoke about how it meant a lot for him to make his parents proud.

“My family supports me all the time. We talk every day and they watch every single game at four in the morning Belarus time,” Sidorov explained. “My parents have helped me a lot in my hockey career so far.”

If he can make it to the NHL, Sidorov will become one of fewer than 20 players from Belarus to play in the league.

Despite so few players from his homeland having played in the NHL, Sidorov said there are a few he looked up to when he was growing up.

“Mikhail Grabovski, he played in Toronto, and Sergei Kostitsyn,” he said. “Lots of good guys played in the NHL in those days and now there’s Yegor Sharangovich.”

In order to have a chance to play in the NHL, Sidorov knows he will need to keep doing the right things to make his dream come true.

“It’s all about work,” he said. “If you work hard, you will have a chance to play.”