Voronkov settling in with Blue Jackets on and off ice

The Blue Jackets brought in a translator on Thursday, hoping to give the media a chance to talk to Dmitri Voronkov, the Russian rookie standout who is already making a big splash at the NHL level.

But Anton Poltyrev didn’t have much to do in the Blue Jackets locker room after the team’s win over Tampa Bay. Instead, Kirill Marchenko wanted to do the honors, standing next to his teammate and attempting to translate both questions and answers.

It led to plenty of laughs and smiles in their corner of the dressing room, something that’s been commonplace over the past year given Marchenko’s ebullient personality.

At one point, Marchenko forgot to ask Voronkov the question, simply answering it before turning to his countryman amid laughter from the media. After a different answer in Russian from Voronkov, Marchenko could only laugh.

“He talks a lot,” Marchenko said with a smile.

At one point, Marchenko did let Poltyrev do the job. When Voronkov was asked about what the accomplishments of his first four games – his first NHL goal, three points and his first NHL fight just two shifts into his career – meant to him, Marchenko turned to Poltyrev to do the translating.

“It’s just the beginning,” Voronkov said through Poltyrev. “I didn’t really catch my emotions at the moment. I just keep on playing and hopefully it will get better.”

Marchenko then smiled.

“That’s better English,” he said with a laugh.

Truth be told, there is a bit of a language barrier for Voronkov in his first year in Columbus, but it’s starting to subside. Marchenko notes that at times, he will start translating for Voronkov during a team meeting before being told to stop.

“He says, ‘No, I am fine!’” Marchenko said.

No matter how the message is getting through, the Blue Jackets are impressed with the 6-5, 240-pound forward. Voronkov has been worth the wait, as he’s gone from an imposing but raw prospect taken in the fourth round of the 2019 NHL draft to someone who has taken to the NHL game like a duck to water.

Voronkov dropped the gloves with Montreal heavyweight Arber Xhekaj in his first game Oct. 26, then made a nice pass to lead to his first NHL assist later in the contest. The 23-year-old's forward first NHL goal came Monday in Dallas when he crashed the net and converted Cole Sillinger’s feed, and he added an assist on Marchenko’s first goal of the season Thursday in the come-from-behind win over the Bolts.

Afterward, head coach Pascal Vincent was effusive in his praise of Voronkov, both for his play and the way he’s been able to adapt to the game.

“That guy is really impressive,” Vincent said. “The way he plays the game and the way he’s able to execute the system without speaking the language, it’s really, really impressive. He does a lot of things that probably we don’t see when it’s live, but when we watch the video, it’s quite impressive.”

While Voronkov is new to North America, he had carved out a role in the KHL the past few seasons. A native of Angarsk, Russia – located in the Irkutsk Oblast of Siberia, about 3,000 miles east of Moscow – Voronkov had become a top player with Ak Bars Kazan the past two years, posting 18 goals and 31 points last season for a squad that came within one win of the Gagarin Cup title.

The size and physicality of his play certainly stand out, but Voronkov’s scoring touch a season ago showed he’s not just out there to bang bodies with the opposition. He has the package to impact the game in a few ways, though it admittedly took Voronkov some time upon arrival this fall to get used to the speed and dizzying back-and-forth of the NHL game.

“The most difficult part is to get adapted to the speed on the ice,” he said through Poltyrev during training camp. “The first game was the hardest, obviously. Practices help a lot and it’s getting better every single game. (I think my size) is going to help me, but at the same time, if I lose a little bit of weight, maybe I'll be faster.”

That last line shows Voronkov has a sense of humor, something Marchenko swears by. The two go back almost four years to the Russian World Juniors squad, as they played on a line together in a tournament that saw their squad make it all the way to the gold medal game before losing to Canada. There’s a clear ease between the two, who are constantly seen chatting at their locker stalls post-practice.

“We just talk a lot,” Marchenko said. “I know he’s a good guy and a good player. I’m just happy to see him again in North America, the NHL. It’s good for him. Good for me, too. It’s a good memory about the World Juniors, and we play together now. It’s interesting after three years. It’s a good experience for us.”

That chemistry perhaps led to Marchenko’s goal Thursday night, though Voronkov was quick to joke his presence in the lineup may have allowed Marchenko to slide back in seamlessly after two games as a healthy scratch.

For someone like Vincent, who is cognizant of the difficulty of the transition Voronkov has faced on and off the ice, seeing his players taking care of each other like that is a good sign for team culture.

"We have a good room, and I think (Ivan) Provorov and Marchenko are doing a real good job with him and showing him the ropes of what it takes to be a good pro,” Vincent said. “That's his first time around, right? That's his first training camp, first time in the NHL, the grind of the league. So we’ll need some help from those guys, but they're doing it really well.”