I don’t personally use Instagram, but a large portion of the population does. Our old friend Valeri Nichushkin does. His profile does more to sell the Instagram product to me than any ad campaign could ever do.
These are just some selected images taken from the account. None of these are doctored. A couple are screencaps from videos he posted.
Here is Val with a dangerous jungle cat:
Val tried to be more careful with the next one and decided to head to see some normal cat inst…ok. Nevermind. This is also a dangerous jungle cat. And he’s cradling it like a baby.
In a less dangerous photo, here is Val with I think his grandmother.
Someone with Nichushkin took a picture of him trying on a coat and adjusting a bow tie. He winked.
The safety had to end eventually. This is a screencap from a video posted to his Instagram page of him firing off an assault weapon.
Someone took a picture of Val at a pool wearing some kind of hat. I don’t know.
The Christmas video he starred in has nothing on his actual Christmas photos. Here he is posing with a Christmas tree,
Opulent kicks.
I think this is some type of Ferris Bueller-like scenario. I’m not sure.
Here’s Val losing his mind on a roller coaster.
The kid does love selfies.
And finally the poolside selfie.
What have we learned? Val likes to be shirtless, take selfies, pose with dangerous jungle cats, shoot guns, and be happy. If he was North American or in a bigger market or didn’t miss almost a full season at 20 Nichushkin would be an NHL rock star.
He’ coming to camp healthy and looking to reboot after missing that full year. If his Instagram page is any indication he should be well rested and ready to go. Nichushkin is expected to be a big part of the Stars going forward. If this season turns out the way they hope God only knows what kind of images will show up.
Whatever they are they’ll be awesome though.