The Detroit Red Wings center organized the camp at the ice hockey arena, the place where he had made his first steps in the sport. This isn’t the first time the double Stanley Cup winner and Olympics Bronze medalist has offered his help.

“The idea to organize such camp was born several years ago,” says Datsyuk. “I remember those times when I was small and wanted real ice hockey stars to teach me some skills. We gave the information about the camp, so those children who wanted to take part came here. Of course, the parents of these kids had to pay some part of the expenses, but we paid the bulk ourselves.”

Nine-year-old Nikita Chirkov is one of those lucky kids. He came to the camp with his mother from the city of Novosibirsk, which is more than 1,500 kilometers away from Yekaterinburg. He arrived with but one goal – to get lessons from his hockey heroes.

“It’s mainly the same like in our regular trainings, but here we have to withstand heavy physical training here. But we are not afraid of them. Plus, we have lots of new exercises and special drills,” say Nikita. “We just love the atmosphere and the way they teach us how to play. It’s very interesting here. And we have an interpreter who helps us understand what coaches say to us. And, of course, we follow all their instructions.”

Besides Nikita, more than 100 other young players, aged from 8 to 16, came to Siberia for top class ice hockey lessons, and they say watching real players and coaches from across the ocean teach them how to play ice hockey is the dream of a lifetime.

“With these two weeks with Pavel we try to do what Pavel does. So, we try to teach a lot of skill. This week we are trying to be skill players. All the Canadian kids want to be like Pavel Datsyuk. But the difference is that in Canada you don’t see the superstars doing something like this for the children. They don’t do it,” says Todd Woodcroft.

The camp will last for another week. The format remains the same throughout – two training sessions a day, with each lasting four hours. And it isn’t a one-off affair either: the organizers promise to come back next year.