Players like Nikita Grebenkin and Vyacheslav Peksa provided some laughs off the ice while at the team’s camp last month.

You hear it from around the NHL. Players from around the league enjoy the sport of golf, especially during summertime. But as far as Russians go, that’s a bit of a different story.

As Toronto Maple Leafs development camp opened up last month, assistant general manager of player development Hayley Wickenheiser mentioned that Maxim Muranov, Nikita Grebenkin, Artur Akhtyamov and Vyacheslav Peksa had some trouble during an outing on the links.

“We had a few of them out golfing the other day and they managed to find the golf cart on the green and had a lot of fun golfing in unfamiliar territory,” Wickenheiser explained.

Putting your golf cart on a green at any golf course is a big no-no, but how would they know? The sport is relatively new to the nation with very few courses established in the county since the mid-1990s.

“They’re great kids, they have overcome a lot,” Wickenheiser explained. “We left it up to Nik Antropov (Leafs skills coach) which was probably a bad idea. He told me never to pair him with the Russians again *laughs*. I thought it was a good idea, but apparently not.”

Antropov, a 13-year NHL veteran who used to play with the Maple Leafs, serves as a skills consultant for the Leafs and is helpful when it comes to translating Russian, being born in what was then the former Soviet Union.

“We just played golf and didn’t think about anything,” Peksa explained. ” It was my first golf experience. First time for everybody in our life. But it was fun. It’s not a popular sport in our country.

“I will play more because I like it.”

One of the more promising players of the Russian bunch is Grebenkin, who signed a three-year entry-level contract in late April, but he wasn’t on the ice for development camp as he recovered from a deep playoff run and winning a KHL championship with Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

“He’s a very funny kid, good sense of humor,” Wickenheiser said. “He’s tough as nails to win Rookie of the Year with the team. He’s a strong boy turning into a young man.”

With a good sense of humor, no wonder why they had so much fun.