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LIer Nikiforov getting shot with Isles

Arthur Staple

5:18 PM EDT, September 16, 2008

Vladimir Nikiforov is in pretty familiar territory these days. Not just because he's trying to grab a spot in the Islanders' farm system, skating at their practice facility in Syosset, a few miles from Hauppauge, where he spent most of his childhood.

It's more that Nikiforov, a speedy left wing, is trying to prove that a 5-7 (if that), 170-pound kid can make it to the NHL.

"Always, it's his size," said his father, Aleksey, who is built the same as his son, though a little more bulldog-esque.

Aleksey has coached most of the good, young players to come out of Long Island over the past 15 years, after he arrived from Lithuania with nothing more than a guest visa. He played for Dynamo Riga as a young man in the former Soviet Union but quickly turned to coaching since he, too, was deemed too small to play at a higher level.

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That was in the 1970s and '80s, when even the elite level of hockey in the USSR looked for big, strong players. "Old-time guys," Aleksey said. He arrived in New York in 1991 and started work almost immediately at The Rinx, the Hauppauge facility owned then by former Islander Gerry Hart.

Vladimir came to stay with his father three years later and took his first spin on the ice at The Rinx a year later. By the time he was at Hauppauge High School, Chris Higgins and Mike Komisarek were already in the NHL, making names with the Canadiens. Rob Scuderi was doing the same in Pittsburgh.

Nikiforov would like to be another Long Island hockey success story. He had a solid three-year career in the Ontario Hockey League, a few sniffs in tryout camps with the Blues and Canucks. He stood out in Syosset in July at a camp for local prospects and was the only one Islanders general manager Garth Snow invited to the current prospect camp, which runs until the big club heads to Moncton, New Brunswick, on Friday.

"There are guys his size who can succeed in the NHL now, and we've had a few," Snow said. "You can see the speed and the skill he has."

As Nikiforov skated with the three dozen or so rookies and prospects, a few of the current Islanders were buzzing by, preparing for their informal workout. Richard Park, all 5-10 of him, bore out Snow's words. Same for 37-year-old Doug Weight, not exactly a towering guy, but someone the Isles will rely upon.

Nikiforov will be 21 in October, too old to go back to junior hockey. He's on a two-way minor-league contract with the Isles, so he may end up in Bridgeport or Utah. Wherever it is, it's still on the right track.

"He's always been the best skater, the best stickhandler," Aleksey said. "He just needs a chance."

"Everybody's always doubted me because of my size," Vladimir said. "But the new game's built for smaller, faster guys. I keep the stuff in the back of my mind."

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