How is Shalagin looking with the Solar Bears and how is his skating coming along? Shamefully I haven't been following him as closely as I should be.
It has been shameful.
The Bears haven't been playing a lot of games the last few weeks, so some things have faded from my memory a bit. I would say Shalagin is still finding his pro game, IMO.
Shalagin impresses me primarily as a two-way forward. I think he makes himself a bit more visible than Lohin or Lipanov because none of these guys are team leaders offensively. Shalagin has been the extra forward and Lohin has been out of the lineup (likely injury, a guy wouldn't be in the doghouse for that long and still be on the team for Drake). ECHL teams normally dress 10 forwards, so he's still getting good minutes. The extra forward can, in certain situations, be a great spot to show your stuff because of the flexibility it allows.
OSB likes a simple north-south game, much more like the Lightning play this year. Shalagin isn't doing end-to-end rushes, dipsy-doodling around d-men or anything, so it's hard to see skills progression. If Shalagin plays tomorrow, I'll take note of his skating for you.