Pavel Valentenko; Another Girardi?

Recently Pavel Valentenko completed his first season with the Connecticut Whale. While it seems his skating ability may hold him back from reaching the NHL (those in the know, doubt he has the skating level required for the big show) his fearless play and willingness to give up his body won’t stop him from getting to the NHL. Recently, the AHL ran a feature on the Russian defenseman who remains a legitimate prospect for the Rangers. The AHL lauded Valentenko a ‘prime shot blocker’ (hence the perhaps misleading title on this post…) while the Russian defenseman received praise from several team mates for his style. Whale goalie Cam Talbot went pretty far with the compliments when he said the following: “Pavel blocks shots so well it’s like having three goalies.” Valentenko has been drawing comparisons to NHL defenseman Anton Volchenkov, so it seems its not just their surnames that are similar. Wade Redden, by all accounts a great mentor down in Connecticut, con...