Rob Schremp is very good friends with his luggage. He’s been a self proclaimed nomad since he was a teenager. Although he grew up in upstate New York, he chose Canada and the OHL as the best place to develop his hockey skills. After spending the 2002-2003 season with the Mississauga Ice Dogs, he packed his bags and moved to the London Knights almost as soon as the 2003-2004 season started. He managed to put the luggage away for three seasons while he made a name for himself as a skilled and energetic player.
In 2004, he was drafted in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft by the Edmonton Oilers. In 2005, he was a member of Team USA at the World Junior Championship in North Dakota. They lost to Russia,7-2, in the Semi Finals. But Rob managed to put up a few points on the scoresheet. It was only a prelude, as Schremp led the OHL in scoring in the 2005-2006 season and Edmonton thought for sure they had a ringer.
USA Hockey tagged him again for the World Juniors in 2006, where he scored five points and USA came in fourth in the competition -- again.
With his junior career over, he packed his bags and headed to PA and made his professional debut with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the then AHL affiliate of the Oilers. He played 69 games and earned 53 points with 17 goals and 36 assists. He cracked the Edmonton line-up just once that season.
The next two seasons found him in Springfield Mass, playing for the Springfield Falcons. In two seasons, he played for Edmonton only six times and earned no points. The hot prospect was placed on waivers and picked up by the NY Islanders. He packed his bags and headed for Uniondale.
I met Rob Schremp before the 2009 season began. I immediately became engaged by the amazing amount of energy wound tightly behind those bright blue eyes. I couldn’t wait to see him play for the Isles. But I had to wait, and wait, and wait. So much so that Scott Gordon knew that my almost daily question for him would be “Are you going to let Robbie play?” Once again, through no fault of his own, Rob was having a problem cracking the NHL line-up. He saw the ice only 44 times that season scoring only seven goals. He returned to the Islanders for the 2010-2011 season and played 45 games with the Islanders before being placed on waivers again in February of 2011.
Pack your stuff, Robbie; you’re heading south. Schremp was off to Atlanta and played 18 games in the Thrashers’ final NHL season. While the Thrashers packed up and moved to Winnipeg, Rob packed up and moved to Sweden. No one needed to ask his new coach if Robbie would be in the line-up, as he played 55 games and scored 41 points for Modo Hockey.
This summer, Rob packed his bags again, this time to head to Latvia after signing a two-year deal with Dinamo Riga. Lucky for me, their website is written in English. Lucky for Rob, there are three Canadians on the roster; Jamie Johnson, Alexandre Giroux and Mathieu Carle, who are sure to speak English.
The KHL’s season is shorter than the NHL season, as there are only 52 regular season games. Their league is also slightly smaller, with 26 teams in two leagues. The Riga arena could be classified as intimate seating: 10,300. (Insert NY Islander attendance joke here for all my non-Islander fan readers.)
As Schremp is only one of the NHLers who have made the move to the KHL, I wanted to ask a few questions. I asked him what the biggest hockey difference there is between the NHL and the European leagues.
“The biggest adjustment was the bigger ice and having more time with the puck. On North American ice, you beat one player and you have a grade, a scoring chance, where here it is much different. You have to make two or three nice plays to have that golden chance.”
If you’ve visited YouTube, you know Rob knows how to make “nice plays.” But still, you need to take cues from your coaching staff. I wondered about the language barrier on and off the ice.
“The language barrier hasn’t been bad at all. A lot of the guys on the team speak English very well, and the ones that don’t try hard, so it makes it easy to work together. As for the people of the communities I have been in, their English is very good compared to the other way around, as I don’t speak a lick of Swedish or Latvian.”
While playing in the KHL may net a player a bigger payday, I asked about the quality of the facilities, especially medical. “It is hard for any league to compete with NHL standards as far as facilities, as the budgets are much bigger. But we have everything that we need here, and there isn’t much that you go without.”
When Rob was on the Island, I watched him eat an entire slice of pizza in two bites after a game, so I asked him if food becomes a challenge.
“The food is a bit different in the different places you go, but I find it to be pretty tasty. The biggest adjustment is being so far away from family and friends. It’s no longer a four- or five- hour drive for your parents; it’s an 18-hour travel day.”
Time and space becomes a challenge for an American playing in Europe, but how about the travel from one city to another?
“In Sweden, the travel was very light and not very taxing at all. I am not too sure as how the travel will work here (in Latvia), because I have only been here a short time. But seeing how Russia is massive, I’m sure the travel will take a little more toll on me this year than it did last year.”
With the NHL and the NHLPA beginning to hammer out a new CBA, I asked Rob is there was anything he’d like to see the sides work on or something he’d like to change now that he has seen hockey outside of North America.
“Maybe a bit bigger ice surface, which creates more time and space, and with all the hooking and holding out of the game, the pace is a lot faster. With bigger ice, it would give guys a split second longer to make plays.”
As someone who is unfamiliar with how hockey media in Europe works, I figured I’d ask – are there bloggers? Is it all beat writers? Do they follow the stars as closely as they do in Canada?
“I’m not too sure about the media because all I do is answer what they ask me, and then I am not able to read the articles anyway, so I don’t really know who I’m talking to or what they are actually saying about me.” I’m pretty sure it’s all good Robbie.
I asked how difficult it has been to maintain homes on two continents, and Rob admitted “it’s been quite the adventure” being a nomad and roaming from city to city. He’s young enough to do that right now, so now IS the time to do it. When I asked if he would like to return to the NHL, I received a more thoughtful response than I have come to expect from the fast-talking, quick witted Rob Schremp.
“It was always my dream to play in the NHL and I made it there even if it was for a short period of time. I would enjoy being back in the NHL playing with and against buddies and playing at the highest level, but it would have to be the right fit. So far, the places I have been in Europe appreciate what I do and have given me a great opportunity. It’s been fun for me to play again.”
I’m sure it has. It’s almost as much fun to watch him play. I guess I’ll be catching the highlight videos from Riga on their website this season and following him on Twitter at @RobSchremp. Maybe I’ll even learn a few words in Latvian. Maybe.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»