STAMFORD, Conn. — “PR! PR! PR! Great work, Danila!”

It’s bright and early on a day in mid-August, and wearing a black long-sleeve Dri-Fit Minnesota Wild shirt and Wild-logoed shorts, prized prospect Danila Yurov has just set a personal record in the “countermovement jump,” cheered on by renowned trainer Ben Prentiss.

Yurov drove 70 miles to the Stamford Twin Rinks on this morning to work with Prentiss and skate with pros, including Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Brett Pesce, Trevor Zegras, Pavel Dorofeyev and Jonathan Quick. The baby-faced Russian has been living in upstate New York with one of his agents and has made the long commute five days a week since arriving in North America on July 13.

Prentiss, who has trained hundreds of NHL stars over his 30 years in the business and 25 years owning his own gym, says the jump Yurov just completed gives him 72 different metrics to measure lower-body power.

He walks to a whiteboard and writes the “PR” next to Yurov’s name — one of four names on the board under a word written in Russian, “сильные мужчины”: Kirill, Dan, Suniev, Pavel, signifying Los Angeles Kings prospect Kirill Kirsanov, Yurov, Calgary Flames prospect Aydar Suniev and Pavel Dorofeyev, the Vegas Golden Knights budding star who scored 35 goals in 2024-25, his first full NHL season.

A quick Google translation indicates the word above the players’ names means “Strong Men.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Prentiss says when asked to confirm. “It means ‘Dorks.’ Seriously. Kreids knows a little Russian and wrote in Russian, ‘Dorks.’”

Without anybody knowing, though, one of the Russian players changed “придурки” to “сильные мужчины” days earlier.

After a long, grueling workout, Yurov sits down on a couch next to Kreider, and the 34-year-old veteran begins talking to the 21-year-old prospect in Russian — a language Kreider picked up after years of playing with Russians such as Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin on the New York Rangers before his trade to the Anaheim Ducks in June.

Yurov laughs hysterically and chirps back at Kreider.

“He says I speak Russian like a 2-year-old,” Kreider says, laughing. “That’s good enough. I’ll take that.”

Every time Kreider cracks a joke, Yurov laughs hard. Asked if he understands them all, Yurov says, “Not all, but (Suniev) speaks perfect English, and he translates everything if I don’t understand. Kreider is fun. He is so strong in the gym.”

Chris Kreider and Danila Yurov became fast training friends. (Michael Russo / For The Athletic)

Earlier that day, Kreider — famously a king of the gym — had led the prospects in a stretching routine. Later, on the ice in a practice session run by Montreal Canadians coach and Hall of Fame player Martin St. Louis, Yurov plays on a line with Kreider and is pulled aside often for tips and tutorials from the player who ranks third in Rangers history in goals. Kreider is doing it out of the goodness of his heart. They don’t share an agent or anything. Sure, Kreider hopes to make the U.S. Olympic team after playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off, but it’s not like Wild and U.S. general manager Bill Guerin put him up to this.

Kreider didn’t know Yurov before he arrived, but he recognizes talent and wants to lend a helping hand to the young new arrival.

“I don’t know why he wants to hear from me. All I have is perimeter skill,” Kreider says, self-deprecatingly, which of course isn’t true of the two-time All-Star. “It’s impossible to tell in summer hockey how good somebody’s going to be, but if you’re asking me if I think he’s going to someday be a great NHL player … yeah.”

Kreider laughs at his own deadpan.

“You can see the way someone processes out there and how they think the game,” Kreider continues. “I think it comes down to the work you put in, but he’s got an NHL-caliber skill set and frame. I think it’s not too dissimilar to the first time we skated with Dorofeyev. You see the ability, and he worked and worked and kept coming back, and look at him now. He’s a 30-goal scorer. But it’s up to Danila to put it together and take advantage of his opportunities.”

Yurov’s already looking forward to hopefully sharing the ice with Kreider again on Nov. 15, when the Ducks come to Minnesota.

“I’m going to talk to him in Russian,” Yurov says.

“I just hope I can keep up,” Kreider says, again, self-deprecatingly.

As Wild fans will soon discover, Yurov actually exists.

He’s no longer a rumor. He’s no longer just hype.

He exists, and he officially arrived in Minnesota over the weekend to begin the next chapter of his promising hockey career.

In the three years since the Wild selected him at No. 24 in 2022, the only way the team’s fans have been able to watch him is in highlights on social media, plus one summer development camp two years ago. That’s been enough to see the slick passes, bursts of speed, awareness on the ice and elite shot.

But after agents Rick Komarow and Max Moliver negotiated the fifth-most-lucrative package for a 2022 draft pick ($2.95 million average annual value, including $2 million in performance bonuses per season), Yurov committed to spending the majority of the summer in the United States. He spent last Wednesday through Friday at rookie orientation in Arlington, Virginia, arrived in Minnesota on Sunday and is expected to take part in his first captain’s practice Monday.

He and Zeev Buium highlight the list of Wild youngsters scheduled to take part in the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase at TRIA Rink against the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks this coming Friday through Sunday.

In August, Yurov pretty much had Moliver’s house to himself. His only duty? To keep Moliver’s giant Sheepadoodle, Cody, well-fed, walked and … alive.

Asked what he did other than taking care of the dog, Yurov says, “I’m cooking every day and washing my clothes and just … chill. Maybe read some books and little bit of PlayStation, like EFC, NHL, Call of Duty, Need for Speed.” He also listens to Russian and American rap.

Prentiss records Yurov’s weight daily and body fat monthly, so he’s been on a diet of meat, greens, fruit and potatoes, and he tries to eat gluten-free. He’ll get recipes off the Internet and try to replicate them.

The focus is on doing whatever he can to help his transition

Expectations are lofty for Yurov, partly because we all saw Kirill Kaprizov become an instant star for the Wild after arriving. But Kaprizov was significantly older and an established KHL star at that point.

Yes, Yurov won a KHL championship in 2024 and led Metallurg Magnitogorsk with 21 goals and 49 points in 62 games that season — a point total that broke now-Wild teammate Vladimir Tarasenko’s KHL under-21 scoring record. But nobody really knows what he will turn into — No. 1 center? Top-six center? Middle-six forward? — or how long it’ll take him to work his way up the Wild lineup.

He also came to the U.S. a little behind after not being able to train fully in the summer of 2024 because of shoulder surgery and then a late-season injury in 2024-25 that caused a slip in production (13 goals and 25 points in 46 games).

The Wild enter training camp with Joel Eriksson Ek, Marco Rossi, Ryan Hartman and Nico Sturm penciled in as their top-four centers, so Yurov could start as a wing. Or he could prove he’s so ready in the exhibition games that Hartman slides to the wing.

“I’m a two-way forward, but I will do what the coach says me to do and I will do it,” Yurov says.

Yurov says the lead-up to coming to the NHL has been long. He was anxious to get his contract signed after his KHL season ended.

“I’m looking forward to go to Minnesota because I want to play in season so bad,” he says. “I can’t wait to meet Kirill and my new teammates. Camp should be fun, but practice is hard thing for a hockey player. We love to play.”

It’s not only the Wild and their fans curious about how good he can become.

It’s Yurov, too.

“NHL is a whole other league and other hockey than KHL,” Yurov says. “But I think I’m preparing for this step. I hope that my acclimation will be not long.”

Danila Yurov believes he has done what he can to prepare for the NHL. (Michael Russo / For The Athletic)

Yurov grew up in Chelyabinsk, Russia — also Wild teammate Yakov Trenin’s hometown — a large industrial city 1,000 miles east of Moscow. It’s the gateway between the European part of Russia and Siberia. Winters are long and cold, “like Minneapolis,” Yurov says.

“Same weather. Same forests. Lakes,” Yurov says. “I feel like winter in Chelyabinsk is the same weather in Minneapolis. Similar number of people, too. New York is beautiful, but so many people. Minnesota is quiet.”

He says he’ll miss the Russian soups, meats and (with a laugh) borscht but can’t wait to try new things here and dive into his new community. In August, the Wild even brought him to Yankee Stadium to meet some of the Twins, including legend Paul Molitor, although he didn’t stay for the game because of a long rain delay.

When he was 4, Yurov was asked by his dad, Lurii, if he wanted to play hockey. A couple of days later, the two went to a hockey game in Chelyabinsk. They met a director of a hockey school there, and he asked Yurov if he wanted to play. A week later, he was on the ice.

Yurov’s dad is an electrician in the arena in Magnitogorsk, where Yurov played his KHL hockey. He works Monday through Friday, then travels nearly 200 miles home to Chelyabinsk on the weekends to be with Yurov’s mom, Irina, who is an economist for Russian Railways, and his 14-year-old sister, Marina, who is a gymnast.

“My family watched any sport — hockey, football, basketball — but I understood I loved hockey from very young,” Yurov says. “I was 2 ½ years old when my father started taking me to the hockey stadium. I just loved it and knew right away I want to do rest of my life. I played football in my street and basketball, but hockey is my life and all my business in my life.

“That’s why the last month in Russia, I wanted to come to the U.S. so soon. I was very excited. I wanted the new workouts and meet the new people and begin this new step.”

The Wild’s amateur scouts have been impressed with what they’ve seen, not only in Russia but also when he came to North America as a teenager for tournaments in Dallas and Swift Current. The Wild liked him so much, they requested a second interview with him in Montreal before the 2022 draft. In fact, Judd Brackett considered taking him at No. 19 but instead made a calculated risk, taking Liam Ohgren at 19 and hoping Yurov would still be there at 24.

In 2023-24, Yurov really made his mark, passing Tarasenko’s under-21 record of 47 points, set in 2011-12.

“When I got 47 points, I think that my record will be the next game,” Yurov recalls. “But in the next game, I not score in an empty net. I started to get worried. One game, two games, three games, I was without points. I think, ‘I can’t take this record all because I missed empty net.’ But when we came back home, I got an assist and I feel relieved.”

Now, Yurov hopes to learn from Tarasenko, 33, the way he’s learned from Kreider in Stamford.

Yurov and Komarow say Wild senior director of player development Brad Bombardir has already helped make the organization feel like home.

“We talk in three seasons every week,” Yurov says. “He asked me about my health and my body. He sent me drills on my ice for my skating and my shooting. What I want to get from him, he did it all the time.”

Judging by Yurov’s interactions with the team on Instagram, it’s clear he has also been following the team from afar. He began to learn English in school when he was 8 but has increased his studies over the past 2 ½ years.

“In the playoffs, our arena was full around 7,500 people,” Yurov says. “The biggest arena in the KHL is (Avangard) Omsk. We played them in the playoffs, and they have 12,000. I can’t wait to play in front of 18,000 Wild fans the first time.”

Danila Yurov says he’s ready to show Wild fans what he can do. (Michael Russo / For The Athletic)

As Kreider alluded to, Dorofeyev — another of Komarow and Moliver’s clients — was raw when he first came to the Prentiss Hockey Performance Center. But he committed to returning year after year. Now he’s perhaps on the verge of a big payday with Vegas.

That’s Prentiss’ hope with Yurov: that he gets exposed to a new type of training, sees the benefits with his play and gravitates back summer after summer.

“Pavel’s gotten better and better in the gym, but that doesn’t mean everything,” Prentiss says. “What means everything is on the ice, and in my first conversations with (Komarow) about Pavel three years ago, I was explaining to him that weight room numbers are important, but the on-ice numbers are the most important thing. If I can make him faster, help him gain a step, that would lead to appreciable gains on the ice.

“Pavel’s gotten faster and faster. He got even faster this summer, and we can’t wait to see if he can grow even further this season for Vegas.”

Of course, every player is different.

Fox is not at Prentiss Hockey Performance to become Matt Rempe. Kreider isn’t here to be Trevor Zegras.

Every player is unique, so just because Dorofeyev has soared, it doesn’t necessarily mean Yurov will unless he sees the dividends and keeps coming back.

After his first summer skating session with St. Louis, Yurov admits, he “was sitting in the locker room 10 or 15 minutes in full gear just sitting because (he) was so tired.”

“Yurov is still raw,” Prentiss says. “The language barrier is not impossible, but it’s challenging. There was a period of getting adjusted and making his progress and getting him on the ice, and now he’s starting to really get more comfortable in what he’s doing.

“He’s come a far way, and he’s made sacrifice. I mean, it took him 18 hours to get here, and the day he got here, he was skating. So he certainly has the dedication. We test his body fat. We test his jump. We test his sprints. We’re keeping, as you can see, all sorts of numbers on everything we’re doing. So we train while we test. And I can tell you Danny has gotten better and better every week since he’s been here.

“To be an NHL player isn’t just being really good at hockey. There’s many different parts. There’s knowing how to recover the right way. There’s what we call sleep hygiene and understanding how to sleep the right way. There’s training. And there’s the nutrition element to it. The old adage is abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.

“We’ve introduced Danny to some new tools, and now it’ll be up to him to utilize them once he gets to Minnesota. And hopefully we see him again next summer.”

Yurov arrives in Minnesota confident in large part because of the training.

“I feel better and feel I got a little bit stronger and more muscles in my body,” Yurov says.

And now, having survived a summer of being one of Prentiss’ сильные мужчины, comes the fun part.

There surely will be growing pains, but the Wild vow to put him in a position to succeed.

Kaprizov shattered expectations. Yurov’s more of a mystery. But he’s about to become a reality.

(Top photo: Michael Russo / For The Athletic)