#igormisa

Okay, so their story starts in Saginaw, Michigan. Over the summer of 2024, Igor Chernyshov gets drafted to the San Jose Sharks and taken by the Saginaw Spirit in the CHL Import Draft. He might’ve tampered his way to Saginaw because his agency Gold Star has a pretty strong connection with that OHL team but this is all speculation. However, he gets shoulder surgery that summer and spends the fall and most of the winter recovering from it, so he doesn’t start playing with Saginaw until early 2025. (He was spending time with the team during rehab tho iirc)

Now, during the 24-25 season Michael Misa was in the midst of having an INCREDIBLE draft year with the Spirit. He ends up tying Patrick Kane for most goals by an OHL draft eligible (62) and leads the league in scoring (134). However, he was just snubbed from the 2025 WJC team for Canada and had just been named captain of the Saginaw Spirit, so there was a lot of pressure on him. In January, NHL Central Scouting had him third for North American skaters, and until that point, he wasn’t considered to have fully met the expectations that came from his exceptional status. His draft year was his breakout and “prove it” year.

Enter Igor Chernyshov: he plays his first game with the Spirit and on Misa’s line on January 30th, and they score mere seconds into their shift. At this point, Igor barely speaks English and is relying on Spirit teammate Dima Zhilkin to translate for him, but his chemistry with Misa is undeniable. The Chernyshov-Misa-Epperson line along with Zayne Parekh on the blue line absolutely terrorize the OHL for the 20 something games they play together. (Here is a thread for every goal Igor and Michael both registered points on while on the Saginaw Spirit) This raises Misa’s draft stock and also makes Sharks fans warm up to him due to their chemistry.

During the predraft interviews, Misa is practically gushing when asked about Igor. His roommate at the combine Malcom Spence even leaks that Misa is hoping to go to San Jose. This praise of Chernyshov continues in post draft interviews as seen in this compilation I made of Misa being asked about him in interviews.

The Sharks clearly notice their chemistry too, as they’re put on a line together for Prospect Scrimmage in July and Rookie Faceoff in September. During Misa’s conditioning stint with the Barracuda, they were put on the power play together. While they haven’t gotten a ton of NHL opportunities on a line together, they did contribute on two goals during one of the games they were on a line together.

Anyways, here’s various cute moments as a treat for getting to the end of this primer!

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