Devils’ Arseni Gritsyuk Acclimating to American Lifestyle

With each passing day, excitement from New Jersey Devils fans for Arseni Gritsyuk seems to grow exponentially. Understandably so — a fanbase that watched their team struggle to score for about four months is gaining their most hyped Russian since Ilya Kovalchuk.

It isn’t just Gritsyuk who has the ability to help restore consistent depth scoring, which the Devils haven’t received since 2022-23. Free agency acquisitions Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov, who notched 30 and 40 points respectively last season, will play key roles as well.

The latter in Dadonov was a heady acquisition by general manager Tom Fitzgerald for more than just his on-ice impact; as a fellow Russian, he’s helping Gritsyuk acclimate to every aspect of North American lifestyle.

Dadonov Helping Gritsyuk Get Acclimated

In his July press conference, Dadonov immediately expressed a willingness to help Gritsyuk. “I think I can help a lot,” said Dadonov. “Yeah, I’m open to help him all around [whether] that’s on the ice, off the ice, outside of the rink.”

Surely, moving halfway across the world without much knowledge of the language can’t be easy. But Dadonov made his NHL debut when Gritsyuk had just turned nine years old; he’s been there, done that, and can certainly offer some guidance.

On Wednesday night, that plan started to come to fruition. Gritsyuk, having just recently arrived in New Jersey, posted a photo of one of his first stops: A meeting with Dadonov. He included a caption which translated to English reads: “Well, now we’ve met,” along with the handshake emoji.

Devils fans instantly took well to the duo. One user on X stated, “They look like father and son.” Another on Reddit offered one word: “Family.” Some complimented their matching slides, wondering if that was planned or sheer coincidence.

In addition to his great NHL career, Dadonov has donned Russia’s national uniform in 10 major international tournaments — many of them alongside teammates of Gritsyuk during the 2022 Winter Olympics, where Gritsyuk scored a key shootout goal to help Russia move on to the Gold Medal Game. There are tons of connections there.

A recent feature from the Devils explained that Gritsyuk had taken English classes twice a week for the last year. While he appears mostly confident, the complex nature of the language by default means it’s still a constant work in progress. Having Dadonov around in the event of a situation where no translator is available is super beneficial.