Yakov Trenin: "SKA have all of the required facilities for players to progress to the next level"

Forward Yakov Trenin:

- I would like to thank the SKA management for giving me the chance to train and play in Saint Petersburg. I really enjoyed my time here! Everyone is at the highest level here, like in the NHL. I am happy that I had the opportunity to play for this club.

- What was your most memorable moment here?

- My first goal against Sochi. The fans' support was fantastic at every match, thank you to them for that!

- You hadn't played in Russia since 2014. What has changed since then?

- The ice hockey itself has barely changed. However, I had only played in the MHL here before, so it's hard to compare it with the KHL. Ice hockey is more technical here, whereas in the NHL it's more direct. The level is very high in Russia.

- Is the Hockey City complex at NHL level? It's considered that SKA have the best facilities in Russia.

- Yes, Hockey City is a complex of the highest level! Maybe it's even better than some of the NHL teams' facilities. There are shooting training areas and the gym is great. SKA have all of the required facilities for players to progress to the next level.

- When you arrived here, you initially played with SKA-1946 players because of self-isolation procedures.

- The SKA-1946 guys did a great job, they competed with confidence. I didn't know any of them beforehand, but they did not look like players who had never played at that level before. They crashed the net and looked confident. We won two out of three matches on the road, I think that it was a good result.

- Was the road trip to play against Sibir Novosibirsk, Amur Khabarovsk and Barys the toughest in your career so far?

- It really was difficult, yes. We lived in accordance with Saint Petersburg time, so it felt as though we returned to the hotel after training at two in the morning. We went to sleep when it was almost six, so it did feel strange.

- Which was your best KHL performance?

- It's tough to recall matches which took place a couple of months ago. I liked our performance against Dinamo Riga in Latvia, we played as a team and gained the victory.