Milwaukee Admirals to host ‘Yaroslav Askarov bench press figurine’ giveaway night

There’s something about minor league sports and promotional nights. If the rule is “the whackier, the better,” then the Milwaukee Admirals are definitely “raising the bar.”

The Nashville Predators’ AHL affiliate will be giving out figurines of goaltender Yaroslav Askarov bench-pressing a net to the first 2,500 fans at their March 9, 2024 game against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

The figurine is a callback to February 2023 when the netminder celebrated a 2-1 shootout win against the Rockford IceHogs by “pumping iron.” To his credit, he made 45 saves in the 65 minutes before to get the Admirals to a shootout.

The clip went viral and became the talk of the hockey world. In an interview with Sean Shapiro last March, Askarov said the celebration was good for hockey.

“It’s a new celly, it gets people talking about hockey,” said Askarov. “In hockey it’s not common for people to show personality, so when people do that, I think it’s great for the game.

“People who don’t know hockey have no reason to watch hockey if we don’t have personality,” he continued.

In four games this season, the 21-year-old goaltender has a 3-1-0 record with a .931 save percentage.

Askarov was drafted 11th overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. After three seasons in the KHL with St. Petersburg SKA, Askarov went to North America and spent the 2022-23 season with the Admirals, posting a 26-16-5 record with a .911 save percentage and 2.69 goals-against-average in 48 appearances.

He made his NHL debut on Jan. 12, 2023 in a 4-3 losing effort, stopping 31 of 35 shots faced.