2019 NHL Draft: Russian Prospects

[Atas2000]

I guess I should be more specific...

1st, and 2nd rounds for this years draft...Seems like there'll only be several Russian born taken...That seems pretty low to me.

Limiting it to rounds is a bad strategy though. The boneheads in the NHL aren't known for evaluating Russians properly.

 

[Unsustainable]

Because it's a business and the organization is/was haemorrhaging money. In Forbes' most recent analysis, they had the Canes losing 3.9million for that season (before interest, taxes, and amortization).

The Business Of Hockey

Lots of teams just buy tape and have subscriptions to every streaming and archive service and scout off of that for areas they don't have regular or fulltime scouts. It's not as good as having the real thing but it's a cost effective solution. Especially when you can get multiple people working on it. It's also why you see so many scouts at big tournaments like the u18 in April. For many organizations it's their first real time look at some of these kids.

I think it's a smart business decision if you don't regularly draft from the locale. Is it the best? No. But even as a big proponent of Russian hockey, I don't necessarily think it's a bad strategy if you are limited. It's a product of the world we live in. Look how big remote working has become in a normal office environment. Technology is certainly helping with some of these expenditures.

New owner also, he’s new to hockey also.

He brings ideas to the table and gets input back. We will have a new head of scouting incoming also. Our old owner was definitely disconnected from the organization.

 

[SvechneJerk]

I think most of our scouting outside of the US is focused on Finland / Sweden. But with Svechnikov, maybe we move to looking more out that way?

Wasn’t Sergei Samsonov involved with that in some capacity, like, at least evaluation of talent, or am I remembering that incorrectly?

 

[Caser]

Wasn’t Sergei Samsonov involved with that in some capacity, like, at least evaluation of talent, or am I remembering that incorrectly?

iirc, he is a dev coach and is mostly working with already drafted prospects developing in NA plus doing some communication with drafted prospects based in Europe.

 

[SvechneJerk]

iirc, he is a dev coach and is mostly working with already drafted prospects developing in NA plus doing some communication with drafted prospects based in Europe.

Thanks @Caser!

I’m hoping that with Svechnikov in the fold, that we’ll make a larger effort to go after Russian prospects. Additionally, my hope is that having someone like Svech on the roster would make our team a little more attractive to them, as well.

 

[Caser]

Bob's final scout survey:

#8 Podkolzin
#37 Afanasyev
#46 Firstov
#49 Nikolayev
#50 Misyul
#54 Knyazev
#58 Okhotyuk
#66 Kochetkov
#81 Chistyakov
#82 Dorofeyev
#84 Spiridonov
#89 Guskov
#93 Gritsyuk

 

[Hollel]

Is there a decent chance Voronkov gets drafted? He was pretty high on Pronman’s list, but outside of that you’re really the only other person I’ve seen mention him.

 

[Caser]

Is there a decent chance Voronkov gets drafted? He was pretty high on Pronman’s list, but outside of that you’re really the only other person I’ve seen mention him.

Well, couple of days ago I heard that also some scouts like him, so maybe there is an actual chance.

 

[Havre]

Any views on why Spiridonov seems to be ranked quite low? Personally I think he looks perfect for the NHL (I picked him 44th in a Fantasy league - maybe slightly early, but I didn't want to lose him).

 

[Caser]

Any views on why Spiridonov seems to be ranked quite low? Personally I think he looks perfect for the NHL (I picked him 44th in a Fantasy league - maybe slightly early, but I didn't want to lose him).

Since Dorofeyev is quite low in that survey too, I'm not sure if I can really get the reasoning behind that. But if we want to just focus at Spiridonov's flaws, I'd say that the skating stride could be smoother and also the fact that I've mentioned that he won't be the guy, who is leading the attack.

 

[Havre]

Since Dorofeyev is quite low in that survey too, I'm not sure if I can really get the reasoning behind that. But if we want to just focus at Spiridonov's flaws, I'd say that the skating stride could be smoother and also the fact that I've mentioned that he won't be the guy, who is leading the attack.

Thanks. And good point about Dorofeyev. That would be some player to get around 80th pick I would say.

Even if you draft Spiridonov at 30-40th and he ends up being a 3C that is still a solid pick.

Last year I was high on Shafigullin. Maybe I'm equally wrong on Spiridonov (not that Shafigullin can't still become a NHL player, but he doesn't seem to have had the development I thought he would - knowing he has often played few minutes).

 

[Gem Hunter]

Check out the Unranked MHL Prospects from a guy I found via twitter
2019 NHL Draft

He's got some shift by shift clips of them as well which gives some kind of perspective.

 

[Caser]

Thanks. And good point about Dorofeyev. That would be some player to get around 80th pick I would say.

Even if you draft Spiridonov at 30-40th and he ends up being a 3C that is still a solid pick.

Last year I was high on Shafigullin. Maybe I'm equally wrong on Spiridonov (not that Shafigullin can't still become a NHL player, but he doesn't seem to have had the development I thought he would - knowing he has often played few minutes).

I think it also might be related to the fact that they play in Magnitogorsk, which is Eastern conference of the MHL and therefore are rare guests in cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg or Riga where scouts prefer to hang out.

 

[Caser]

I still feel a bit guilty due to lack of depth this year, even though the Top30 made more sense than my usual long lists if you think about it that way, still, in case anyone interested how it should've looked outside of my Top30, here it is:

31. C Lev Komissarov
32. W Stepan Starkov
33. RW/C Maxim Shabanov
34. W Kirill Tyutyayev
35. C Nikita Anokhovskiy
36. LW Ilya Altybarmakyan
37. RW Alexander Gordin
38. LHD Dmitriy Tyuvilin
39. W Daniil Ogirchuk
40. RHD Anton Malyshev
41. W Pavel Gogolev
42. C Vladislav Mikhailov
43. LW Alexander Daryin
44. RW/C Nikita Rozhkov
45. LHD Nikolai Burenov
46. C Artyom Zhuk
47. LHD Ivan Rogov
48. C /LW Maxim Denezhkin
49. RW Danil Savunov
50. RHD Daniil Valitov
51. GK Maxim Zhukov
52. LW Yaroslav Likhachyov
53. RW Amir Garayev
54. LHD Saveliy Olshanskiy
55. C Artyom Galimov
56. LHD Igor Usmanov
57. LHD Bogdan Zhilyakov
58. LW Gleb Petrov
59. LW Yaroslav Alexeyev
60. GK Gleb Nosov
61. RW Nikita Rtishchev
62. GK Amir Miftakhov
63. W Ivan Muranov
64. LHD Yegor Bryutov
65. W/C Nikita Mikhailov
66. GK Vladimir Galkin
67. W Mikhail Shalagin
68. LW Alexander Yaremchuk
69. LW Yegor Stepanov
70. C Takhir Mingachyov

 

[MaxV]

I still think Slepets is underrated.

I get it, he is small, but he is far from soft.

 

[MaxV]

BTW, after the draft we should do a top Russian prospects poll.

 

[Caser]

I still think Slepets is underrated.

I get it, he is small, but he is far from soft.

His talents have been known for quite some time and size isn't really an issue here, but the fact that he shows his talents basically only when he is really motivated is a red flag that has been following him all that time and I'm not sure if this flag can be considered as gone now.

 

[S E P H]

Great thread Caser, can't disagree with anything you said based upon my personal viewings except one. I don't really agree with your assessment about Chistyakov. Even if all he develops as is a primarily a defencive-defender, he has enough talent to be worthy of a top 90 selection. I very much value him.

 

[Caser]

Great thread Caser, can't disagree with anything you said based upon my personal viewings except one. I don't really agree with your assessment about Chistyakov. Even if all he develops as is a primarily a defencive-defender, he has enough talent to be worthy of a top 90 selection. I very much value him.

It's not like I'd dislike him, but I just can't really understand the end projection. I mean, currently I view him as a mobile physical defensman with some puck skills more like as a bonus. But he is 5'10" and that 'physical' part might be gone when translating to pro hockey due to that or require some major style adjustments, and I'm not totally sure that with keeping that in mind the projection is on the NHL level.

 

[Caser]

Podkolzin to Vancouver in the round one, but it really starts just today anyway.

 

[57special]

How is Nikolayev's skating? It looked pretty good to me in limited viewings.

 

[5cotland]

Podkolzin to Vancouver in the round one, but it really starts just today anyway.

Please stop spamming my twitter with Podkolzin plays

 

[Caser]

How is Nikolayev's skating? It looked pretty good to me in limited viewings.

Yeah, looks good to me too, also if he would have issues with that, he would've fallen much lower in the Bob's survey.

Please stop spamming my twitter with Podkolzin plays

Just making sure people know that I'm still alive.

 

[Caser]

Kochetkov to Carolina at #36.

 

[57special]

So, Nikolayev and Spirodonov are available C's for the Wild in the second round, but they take yet another LW in Firstov? Did they do it because he plays just down the road in Iowa, and they have limited imagination?