Mukhamadullin Talks Bashkir Roots, Last Chat With Rodion Amirov & More (+)

On Mar. 11, seconds after a KHL conference quarterfinal game in Vladivostok, there was nobody sadder than Shakir Mukhamadullin. His team, Salavat Yulaev, lost to the Admiral and were eliminated from the playoffs.

The cameras captured it all. The happiness of the Admiral players. The sadness of Salavat Yulayev. And the tears on the face of the 21-year-old defenseman.

“Emotions were overflowing,” Mukhamadullin recalled to San Jose Hockey Now in Russian. “I’d been playing for Salavat Yulayev since I was a kid. That’s where I learned to skate. After that loss, I knew: If we lose, this would be the time for me to leave the team indefinitely. I knew I was moving to San Jose right after this playoffs.”

For Mukhamadullin, it was a bittersweet moment. He wanted to end his KHL season on a high note—which didn’t quite work out—but he was also excited about going to San Jose.

Mukhamadullin, who joined the San Jose Barracuda in March, is one of the most exciting San Jose Sharks prospects. This 6-foot-4 offensive defenseman could be a key player in the Sharks’ rebuild, but he’s yet to play his first NHL game and there’s not much info about him beyond dry facts and numbers.

Until now.

If you take a closer look at Mukhamadullin’s background, you’ll see that he, indeed, spent his whole life in his native city of Ufa, playing for the Salavat Yulayev organization.

At age four, he started the Salavat Yulayev academy, then played for the U21 team and finally joined the main squad in 2019, recording 186 KHL games.

One of the KHL’s founding teams, Salavat Yulayev is based in Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan (one of the regions in Russia), and named after, well, Salavat Yulayev—Bashkir national hero who lived in the 18th century.

Salavat Yulayev, coached by former San Jose Sharks’ forward Viktor Kozlov, sure remembers its Bashkir roots. It even has a traditional fur hat, called ‘burek’, that is awarded to the MVP of each game in the locker room.

“It’s more of a celebratory thing,” Mukhamadullin explained. “At the beginning of each season, the head coach gives it to the first player who he thinks deserves it most. Then this player passes ‘burek’ to someone else. We would take this hat to the away games too.”

“It’s very competitive,” Mukhamadullin added. “I would get it, like, once or twice a season.”

A big-city kid, Mukhamadullin said he doesn’t really follow Bashkir traditions. But, whenever possible, he joins his family to celebrate Bashkir and religious holidays, like Uraza Bairam or Kurban Bairam. He also understands the Bashkir language.

“I went to a Bashkir kindergarten when I was three and four, and we spoke Bashkir there,” Mukhamadullin explained. “Now, when I visit my grandparents, they, my mom and her brother all speak Bashkir. I understand everything, but it’s hard for me to speak Bashkir now.”

Mukhamadullin’s mom used to work as a ticket seller at the Salavat Yulayev’s home arena. For Mukhamadullin and his older brother, when they were little, this meant a chance for some ice arena shenanigans. The brothers would also meet some of the guest teams’ players. Once they even snapped a photo with Jaromir Jagr.

When I asked Mukhamadullin if Jagr was his favorite player, he said no. He admired another NHL and KHL star, Pavel Datsyuk.

The reason? Just like Datsyuk, Mukhamadullin played center until he was twelve.

“My team had a new coach, Nikolai Tsulygin, for about half a year,” Mukhamadullin said of the moment he transitioned to the blueline. “On his first day, I came to the locker room and found myself on the list of D-men. I didn’t ask anything. He was the coach, I was a player, so he knew better. He also asked me to never forget about my offensive side.”

Mukhamadullin laughed when he remembered his first practice as a D-man.

“My first thought was: Whoa! It’s so much easier to be a defenseman! You just pass a puck and then don’t even need to skate! But on a serious note, being a center, I also knew what it was like to play defensively. Though it took me some time to adjust, like stopping on the blueline when entering the offensive zone.”

When Mukhamadullin was still with the Salavat Yulayev organization, he was more of a creative defenseman, focusing on improvising and helping create offensive opportunities.

Things slightly changed in 2022 when he first went to North America. He joined the Utica Comets, a farm team for the New Jersey Devils, and learned about the tough North American style of hockey firsthand, playing a few AHL playoff games.

“Utica had a game on my second day in America,” Mukhamadullin said about his first impression. “Of course, I was still jet-lagged and didn’t play. The arena didn’t look super new, the boards and glass were almost cracking. So with every hit, I could hear how tough everyone was. It sounded like MMA on the ice!”

With knowledge of very little English back in Utica, Mukhamadullin relied on the help of his teammate Nikita Okhotiuk.

“He said that I’d better stay home when the sun goes down,” Mukhamadullin mentioned. “But one night I decided to go buy a sim card on my own. As soon as I crossed the street, I felt like I got teleported into a different world. Everyone looked, well, dangerous. I called Nikita, and he picked me up right away.”

After a few games for the Utica Comets, Mukhamadullin returned to his native Ufa and played the 2022-23 KHL season. He was still with Salavat Yulayev when he found out about being traded to the San Jose Sharks, along with his friend Nikita Okhotiuk, in the Timo Meier blockbuster.

He moved to San Jose in March, after that tearful KHL conference quarterfinals loss, and spent the rest of the AHL regular season with the Barracuda where he earned a whopping four assists in an Apr. 5 game against the San Diego Gulls.

He first shared an apartment with Danil Gushchin, but then, for a few weeks, stayed at Evgeni Nabokov’s house where they would spend nights watching and discussing hockey games together. Nabokov would also help translate for Mukhamadullin.

Mukhamadullin said he’s a lot more confident understanding English now. He is also adjusting to the North American style of hockey.

This summer, one of the Sharks’ most promising prospects focused on getting ready for his first full season in North America.

“I came back to San Jose in July,” Mukhamadullin said. “Many people mentioned that I needed more weight, so I focused on muscular development. After two months of work, I was able to gain four to five kilograms. Not fat, muscles.”

Mukhamadullin was in the midst of training when he heard terrible news. On Aug. 14, his friend Rodion Amirov, a top Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, passed away after a year-long battle with cancer.

“We would meet in Ufa when he would come home between his treatments,” Mukhamadullin said. “We saw each other almost every day, going for a walk or walking our dogs together.”

Mukhamadullin added that the last time he and Amirov talked was back in July when he was on his way to San Jose.

“Rodion wished me luck and hoped we’d see each other in North America at some point. He said, ‘I’ll join you there soon.’ But a few weeks after, his condition worsened, and he went to a hospital in Germany. When I didn’t hear anything from him for a month, I started worrying. I even thought of going to Germany, but I didn’t have a visa…”

Mukhamadullin found out about the tragic news a few weeks before the start of the Sharks’ training camp.

“I decided to go,” he said. “I knew it was the right thing to do, so I asked the Sharks to give me a week off and flew to the funeral in Ufa.”

When Mukhamadullin was back, he joined the San Jose Sharks and did a fantastic job during the camp and preseason games.

“He’s rangy, he’s fast, he’s agile, there’s a lot of athleticism there,” Sharks head coach David Quinn praised the young defenseman back in September. “He passes like an NHL’er.”

But ultimately the Sharks’ coaching staff decided that the AHL would be the right place for Mukhamadullin’s growth.

Fast forward two months and Mukhamadullin played 21 games for the San Jose Barracuda. He affirmed that his development is “going as planned.”

“I’m playing simpler, and I’m getting used to it,” Mukhamadullin explained. “I still try helping the offense whenever I can. But my focus right now is on improving such defensive components as corner and net-front play. This is where the coaching staff and I see my progress.”

He described the main difference between his play style in Salavat Yulayev and the Barracuda using two words: “All forward.”

“In the KHL, if I had a puck and didn’t see where to pass it, I would go back to my zone and wait for my line to be back on the ice,” Mukhamadullin elaborated. “Here, I don’t have time to do that, so I should only move forward.”

Barracuda has a few more games before the holiday break. Mukhamadullin said the team will have four days off around Christmas, during which he and his wife Diana planned on going to Lake Tahoe. They married in March, and Diana joined him this past summer.

“I was there back in the summer and liked the views,” Mukhamadullin reminisced. “It reminded me of Bashkiria’s nature with mountains, rivers and lakes. I’m sure Lake Tahoe will be gorgeous in winter. I do miss the snow.”