There are some professional athletes who just can’t seem to stop being their own worst enemies and although they seem to tend to be few and far between, the National Hockey League isn’t immune from those types of athletes.
This week during a recent episode of the Daily Faceoff Rundown podcast, recently retired NHL goaltender Devan Dubnyk shared an interesting tidbit about one of the most infamous examples of such an athlete the NHL has ever had. Dubnyk was reminiscing about some fond memories from his career when he was suddenly asked about the ‘worst teammate’ he has ever had when it comes to firing off ‘high heaters’ during practice.
As a veteran of nearly 550 NHL games, and one that played for a variety of teams around the league, you might think that Dubnyk would have to stop and ponder such a question for a few moments. Quite to the contrary, the former NHL goaltender didn’t even hesitate for a second and proceeded to tear down former 2012 first overall pick Nail Yakupov.
“Oh! Nail Yakupov,” said Dubnyk without skipping a beat. “This guy was an idiot, a complete idiot.”
According to Dubnyk, Yakupov not only refused to cooperate with his teammates in practice but seemingly couldn’t even be bothered to try and understand what was being said to him.
“He’s zipping these things past my ear because he’s trying to hit the elbow,” said Dubnyk. “I tried to explain to him there’s 3 outcomes here: You miss the net, you score or you hit me in the ear and I hate all 3 of those.”
Dubnyk couldn’t get the message through to the highly touted prospect and ended up shooting him to the other side of the ice.
“If you wanna practice this shot…. go do it at the other end,” said Dubnyk.
When asked if Yakupov ever got it, Dubnyk gave perhaps his coldest answer of all when it comes to the former first overall pick.
“Well obviously not,” said Dubnyk. “He’s nowhere to be found so I don’t think he hits that elbow too often.”
What makes this story all the more compelling is that Dubnyk and Yakupov spent a relatively short time together as members of the Edmonton Oilers, less than 2 full seasons, and that time together came at the beginning of Dubnyk’s NHL career. In spite of that, it seems that Yakupov was so special that he left a lasting impression on Devan Dubnyk.
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