Nikita Ivashchenko; journey of the North Stars Ukrainian star

“All of my family are hockey players so when I was born my father saw a potential already and he gave me a stick and that’s the way how I start to play.”

Fast forward to 2024, and Ivashchenko has been a crucial piece to North Stars as he is one of the top point-getters in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) and leads the team in points, goals, and assists.

But this didn’t happen overnight and even though he knew at a young age he was very skilled, there was still a long journey ahead.

“I started getting really good at nine years old and I realized I could be a good player. That’s when I could see the difference between me and my other friends at the same age,” said Ivashchenko.

The first part of his journey started in 2021, when he made the big decision to move to Sweden to play hockey for Hofors HC in the Swedish J18 Division 1 League.

“There’s not a good level of hockey in Ukraine and I’ve been hoping for offers from any other teams. Then I got an offer from Sweden. They said they saw me in a tournament in Europe and I played really good and that they would like to see on their team, so I signed a contract to play for them.”

After just seven games with the Hofors J18 team, Ivashchenko showed his skill putting up seven goals and four assists for 11 points, which prompted the coaches to put him on the Hofors J20 squad midway through the season. From there, Ivashchenko continued to produce and by the end of his season, he had 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points in just 14 games.

Due to his outstanding performance, Ivashchenko signed a contract with a new team the following season, Strömsbro IF in the Swedish J18 Region League, which was a step up from the season prior. During this season, he put up 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points in 19 games, as well as playing in 11 games for the Strömsbro J20 team, where he notched seven goals and seven assists in 14 games.

The 2022-23 season is also where Ivaschenko got more recognition and earned himself a spot on the U18 Ukrainian World Junior National Team.

“I was surprised because I’ve been waiting for World Juniors but I didn’t think I would get an invite because it was my first time ever and all of my friends from Ukraine they played for the national team already, but I never played for them, so I thought maybe there’s something personal with me,” Ivashchenko laughed. “Then I got a call from the manager, and he said they wanted me to play for us in the World Juniors and I was really happy.”

During his first World Junior Championships (WJC), he made a big impact playing in five games, scoring one goal and was awarded the Top Player on Team Ukraine.

“It was kind of a surprise to win the award as it was something I didn’t think about. It was my first World Juniors, so I was just happy to be there and play hockey, but of course it was a really good feeling to get it.”

This was also the point in the timeline when North Stars Head Scout and General Manager, Wylie Riendeau found out about and started to take notice of the skillful Ivashchenko.

“We started speaking with Nikita through one of his teammates on the U18 Ukrainian National Team during the 22-23 season. At this time Nikita was playing in Sweden and had already signed a contract to play for the 23-24 season, but he wanted to stay in contact about a potential opportunity for the 24-25 season,” said Riendeau.

For 2023-24, Ivashchenko signed with a new team in the J20 Region, BIK Karlskoga and yet again his success continued, putting up 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points in 19 games. He also made the U20 Ukrainian World Junior National Team during this season as well and the team went on to win the Silver Medal at the WJC in Division 1B.

“We didn’t expect to win silver actually, I think we expected to win gold, but we lost to Slovenia who had lots of guys from the Swedish first league and some guys from the OHL, we thought we were going to beat them for sure but it was still nice to win silver.”

Once the season came to an end in Sweden though, this is when the ball really started to get rolling for him to come play for North Stars.

“Him and I kept each other up to date on how our seasons were progressing and he made the decision to sign a contract with us for the 24-25 season. It was a lengthy process to get him over here to play within Hockey Canada. Lots of paperwork and documents back and forth, but it was worth it,” Riendeau said.

“It wasn’t a hard decision after my last season in Sweden. North Battleford, I saw this team, I searched for players and for the organization and I really liked what I saw. So, it wasn’t a hard decision for me because I like the people in Canada. I like the lifestyle. I like everything about Canada. I knew it was going to be better for me,” Ivashchenko said.

Then after months of conversation and hours of long flights, Ivashchenko finally touched down in Canada this past summer, and from that point on he knew this is where he belonged.

“The first minute I went to the airport, I realized this is the place where I want to be,” he smiled.

With his journey to Canada now complete, things have only been uphill since then.

Ivashchenko has truly been a star, leading the team in goals with 12, assists with 19 and points with 31, all while helping the North Stars hold a fifth overall spot in the league with a 15-10-3-2 record.

The only sad part of his long journey to Canada is that currently with the war going on between Ukraine and Russia, he is unable to go back and visit his family for the holidays as they deal with the day-to-day effects.

“If I’m talking about myself, I haven’t been affected too much because I moved to Sweden before the war, but my family, they are still living in Ukraine right now and every day they can see rockets, bombs and stuff like that, so I can’t go home for Christmas, I will be staying with my billets.”

Despite not being able to home, Ivashchenko is making the best of it, embracing the holiday spirit and said that he is excited to spend Christmas in Canada for the first time with his billet family.

“You can feel the difference compared to Ukraine because people are excited more in Canada about Christmas. I can notice on the street can walk down the street and see people are smiling, buying Christmas gifts, I’m so excited.”

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Austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes

by Austin Mattes

Nikita Ivashchenko; journey of the North Stars Ukrainian star

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