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Hockey ‘Entourage’? KHL player hires his friends to be his roommates

Greg Wyshynski

It’s a classic success story: Local boy makes good, gets rich, brings his friends along for bro-tastic adventures, has an agent named Ari Gold, stars as “Aquaman”, falls into a series of ego-driven failures, subsequent drug addiction and a relationship with Sasha Grey, sobers up, produces a movie about miners with his brother Johnny Drama and everyone hugs it out. And a grown man is named "Turtle."

From the sound of it, forward Veli-Matti Savinainen of the KHL’s Khanty-Mansiysk is living out his own “Entourage” fantasy with two buddies from back in Finland.

Here’s reader Ville Kankaanpää with a story via Satakunnan Kansasta:

"According to the Finnish newspaper Satakunnan Kansa, Veli-Matti Savinainen, a 27-year old forward from last season's FEL champion Ässät signed a 2-year contract with KHL's Khanty-Mansiysk located in western Siberia.

"Here's where it gets interesting: Savinainen hired two of his friends to come along!

"After asking how much the guys make in a month working as warehouse personnel, Savinainen promised to pay them the same amount if they tag along for the ride ($2K/month).

"One of the guys said 'yes' immediately, while the other one thought about it through the night, and in the morning phoned Savinainen asking if he was indeed serious. After a positive reply, he tendered in his resignation.

"The entourage of two will be traveling to the east as soon as suitable accommodation is available, Savinainen has already been spending the last two months living in a hotel in Siberia.

"The friends have their passports and visas ready, and are eagerly awaiting for a new experience living in west Siberia."

Drama, ‘E’ and Turtle get to move to Hollywood. Teemu and Antti (we’re just spit-ballin’ here on the names) get to move to Siberia.

Such is entourage.

We're looking forward to Savinainen and his boys buying matching sports cars or firing and rehiring each other or toasting vodka on a Siberian rooftop and yelling “VICTORY!” at least three times every season.