Prospect Info: 2020 1st Rd Selection - #15 OA - LW Rodion Amirov (RUS) - 6'0", 177lbs Part II

[supermann_98]

Not everyone knows the history of the Hunters and the London Knights. Hunter was considered a draft specialist because he routinely drafted star players late in the OHL drafts. The problem is it had very little to do with scouting. London, as a city, is one of the largest cities with a junior team and being a party university town was an easy sell for teenage hockey players. The Hunters essentially sold top prospects on their program which influenced them to “commit” to other leagues (e.g. NCAA) or other sports so they would fall in the draft. Some rumors even include purposefully bombing interviews with a handshake agreement that the Knights would select them. That works in junior but doesn’t in the NHL.



Hunter was terrible outside of pushing for Marner over Hanifin.

He also chose Matthews over Laine

 

[Cams]

Not everyone knows the history of the Hunters and the London Knights. Hunter was considered a draft specialist because he routinely drafted star players late in the OHL drafts. The problem is it had very little to do with scouting. London, as a city, is one of the largest cities with a junior team and being a party university town was an easy sell for teenage hockey players. The Hunters essentially sold top prospects on their program which influenced them to “commit” to other leagues (e.g. NCAA) or other sports so they would fall in the draft. Some rumors even include purposefully bombing interviews with a handshake agreement that the Knights would select them. That works in junior but doesn’t in the NHL.

Great point - a lot of London's big players were recruits more than draft picks. Even going back to Patrick Kane (5th rd pick), Sam Gagner (4th rd), etc...... Bigger junior city, good school, shiny new arena. Back then I used to know a lot of people in the background of OHL hockey and London (and other teams) did a lot of recruiting - say you are going NCAA and we will take you in a later round - miraculously they report, or they are not reporting to a different team that drafted them, London trades for their rights and sure enough, they are in the OHL. They just never got caught.

 

[KyleDubasBoyGeniua]

While they look like great picks I’ll wait until they become productive members of the team before heaping on the accolades.

That's fair. But I'll now be able to knock Hunter's drafting since we've had more time. Big disappointment.

 

[Dekes For Days]

While they look like great picks I’ll wait until they become productive members of the team before heaping on the accolades.

The idea that we shouldn't acknowledge good drafting because they're not "productive members of the team" yet is pretty ridiculous. These are team assets. Through good drafting, asset value increases.

 

[KyleDubasBoyGeniua]

Our prospect pool has no business being being this good and this deep.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

If he and Robertson can each slide into the top 9 in the next 2ish years, it'll be a huge boost to the teams depth.

Ideally Amirov can play in the AHL next season to get more icetime

A Huge Toronto Maple Leafs Rumour Out of Russia. A couple year’s of loss of control on his development possibly and maybe he doesn’t want to sign a Elc after a couple years if they offer him big money. This is the type of drafting risks associated with Russian players. This puts a question mark on the unknowns moving forward with this pick. Makes my wanting the team to draft the RHD Schneider look better.i hope we didn’t draft a player more interested in staying home. Not unheard of in picking Russians that would rather play at home.

 

[Morgs]

That article is silly. I'm sure the Leafs wouldn't mind him signing a 2 year extension if Amirov gets minutes. The KHL is a better league than the AHL.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

That article is silly. I'm sure the Leafs wouldn't mind him signing a 2 year extension if Amirov gets minutes. The KHL is a better league than the AHL.

https://thehockeywriters.com/top-10-best-ice-hockey-leagues/
Not sure I totally agree with the list but Ahl barely makes it.

 

[Fogelhund]

A Huge Toronto Maple Leafs Rumour Out of Russia. A couple year’s of loss of control on his development possibly and maybe he doesn’t want to sign a Elc after a couple years if they offer him big money. This is the type of drafting risks associated with Russian players. This puts a question mark on the unknowns moving forward with this pick. Makes my wanting the team to draft the RHD Schneider look better.i hope we didn’t draft a player more interested in staying home. Not unheard of in picking Russians that would rather play at home.

It's probable, as mentioned in the article, that there would be a NHL out clause. Even if not, three years isn't a big deal, and should basically see him ready to step right into the lineup at the end. But, this is a rumour, nothing more. There is no big money in the KHL anymore, so, nothing to worry about there.... and I'd love to see a list of Russians, picked in the first round, who chose to spend their career in the KHL. Even if we didn't pick Amirov, Schneider wasn't the right pick, and it's unlikely he's much of a contributor in the NHL much before Amirov anyway.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

It's probable, as mentioned in the article, that there would be a NHL out clause. Even if not, three years isn't a big deal, and should basically see him ready to step right into the lineup at the end. But, this is a rumour, nothing more. There is no big money in the KHL anymore, so, nothing to worry about there.... and I'd love to see a list of Russians, picked in the first round, who chose to spend their career in the KHL. Even if we didn't pick Amirov, Schneider wasn't the right pick, and it's unlikely he's much of a contributor in the NHL much before Amirov anyway.

That remains to be seen. Schneider can play consistently good defense right now. He isn’t going to jump right to tje Nhl from Ohl thats a given. Schneider could play Ahl level right now but can’t. That rule is out dated protectionism. The reason I don’t worry about it so much is because of the quality of coaching in the Ohl or the Chl in general as a whole.
He’s not making any jump that i can see either. Both are a couple years away.

 

[Morgs]

https://thehockeywriters.com/top-10-best-ice-hockey-leagues/
Not sure I totally agree with the list but Ahl barely makes it.

Hm. I'd probably have the AHL after Liiga, but you could convince me it was ahead of it.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

https://thehockeywriters.com/top-10-best-ice-hockey-leagues/
Not sure I totally agree with the list but Ahl barely makes it.

AHL is no worse than 4th on that list.

KHL and AHL are probably equivalent, except the KHL accommodates certain types of players a little bit better than the AHL. That's why you see a lot of skilled guys go to the KHL when they don't feel like they are getting NHL chances. SHL is slightly worse than the KHL, but similar idea. The Liiga, Czech, NLA, and DEL leagues are nowhere close, even though they do produce NHL talent. Unless you are like U24 and one of the best players in those leagues, you have no chance of making the NHL, and even the vast majority of those guys would barely survive in the AHL before heading home.

The main thing is that those leagues may have some really top end guys who play there while they are young, before they come to the NHL, while those high end caliber players typically skip the AHL in North America.

 

[Fogelhund]

That remains to be seen. Schneider can play consistently good defense right now. He isn’t going to jump right to tje Nhl from Ohl thats a given. Schneider could play Ahl level right now but can’t. That rule is out dated protectionism. The reason I don’t worry about it so much is because of the quality of coaching in the Ohl or the Chl in general as a whole.
He’s not making any jump that i can see either. Both are a couple years away.

Schneider plays excellent CHL level defense, but it's such a huge jump to the NHL for sure. I'd agree with you on the AHL, I think there needs to be a rule change there, whether that is a first round rule per year, or if that's a one player per team, per year rule.

 

[X66]

The best part about prospects like Robertson, Sandin and Amirov is that you know 100% they'll be NHL players.

How good? That's up to them, but I love where our drafting has gone under Dubas.

 

[The Podium]

That remains to be seen. Schneider can play consistently good defense right now. He isn’t going to jump right to tje Nhl from Ohl thats a given. Schneider could play Ahl level right now but can’t. That rule is out dated protectionism. The reason I don’t worry about it so much is because of the quality of coaching in the Ohl or the Chl in general as a whole.
He’s not making any jump that i can see either. Both are a couple years away.

Just because you dont like a rule does not mean it is outdated. If anything it is more relevant than ever for the CHL to hold the rights to players for as long as possible. If you had prospects graduating to the AHL the league would have significantly less marketability and the level of competition would be beyond piss poor ultimately weakening the league and sabotaging the future of NHL prospects.

 

[ACC1224]

That's fair. But I'll now be able to knock Hunter's drafting since we've had more time. Big disappointment.

Knock yourself out. I’m sure most could care less about Hunter at this point.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

The best part about prospects like Robertson, Sandin and Amirov is that you know 100% they'll be NHL players.

How good? That's up to them, but I love where our drafting has gone under Dubas.

Been very happy with Dubas' drafting strategy. That said, as a team over the past 12 drafts, one thing we have done consistently well is our first pick, no matter where it is. Apart from three guys, basically every other one goes at or above where they were picked in a redraft (too early to guess on Rodion mind you). The three outliers were Gauthier, Biggs and Ross. That should probably serve as a lesson for those suggesting you target certain types when drafting. Those guys you acquire through trade or FA. Too much of a crapshoot.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Just because you dont like a rule does not mean it is outdated. If anything it is more relevant than ever for the CHL to hold the rights to players for as long as possible. If you had prospects graduating to the AHL the league would have significantly less marketability and the level of competition would be beyond piss poor ultimately weakening the league and sabotaging the future of NHL prospects.

Never though of it like that before to be honest. Very true. That said, it hinders development of certain players that are ready for the next development step. Actually it gives younger guys more icetime and responsibility for their team if one moves to the ahl.

 

[Menzinger]

The idea that we shouldn't acknowledge good drafting because they're not "productive members of the team" yet is pretty ridiculous. These are team assets. Through good drafting, asset value increases.

This is true.

While prospects still always have work to do, they're not all black boxes. Robertson had a near historic D +1 season, a guy like Ransanen immediately regressed.

So I dont quite buy we can treat prospects as this black box fully

 

[hobarth]

Nobody should worry. KHL teams just allocate ice time differently. Panarin only played 15:59 in his last KHL season.

Panarin Artemy:Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)

How can Podkolzin only getting 8 minutes of icetime in the KHL be good for a young player? Young players need to play to progress, 8 minutes of playing time per actual game isn't any kind of magic bullet towards development. It seems the KHL isn't a developmental league, as it shouldn't be, and it doesn't have time or patience to develop players with NHL aspirations.

 

[X66]

The idea that we shouldn't acknowledge good drafting because they're not "productive members of the team" yet is pretty ridiculous. These are team assets. Through good drafting, asset value increases.

100%

I tried explaining that to a poster not too long ago.

How many Hunter draft picks outside of the lottery picks had high value?

Sandin and Robertson today would be considered blue chip prospects in a trade proposal today.

Whether they hit that ceiling or not, having them as high end assets is still very valuable.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Schneider plays excellent CHL level defense, but it's such a huge jump to the NHL for sure. I'd agree with you on the AHL, I think there needs to be a rule change there, whether that is a first round rule per year, or if that's a one player per team, per year rule.

One player per team is probably not a terrible idea. Most teams won't have more than one at any given time, if that.

It would hurt the QoC a little bit, but 32 guys across all of the CHL is not going to kill them (especially with the high turnover as it is) and it does give other guys a chance to shine.

 

[KyleDubasBoyGeniua]

Been very happy with Dubas' drafting strategy. That said, as a team over the past 12 drafts, one thing we have done consistently well is our first pick, no matter where it is. Apart from three guys, basically every other one goes at or above where they were picked in a redraft (too early to guess on Rodion mind you). The three outliers were Gauthier, Biggs and Ross. That should probably serve as a lesson for those suggesting you target certain types when drafting. Those guys you acquire through trade or FA. Too much of a crapshoot.

We really have. Most teams have some big misses in the first round. The bad part is because of the NHL's hard cap system, you get punished by drafting god firsts every year. Once they got Nylander, Marner, Matthews 3 years ina row it meant some tough cap manouvering.

 

[Martin Skoula]

One player per team is probably not a terrible idea. Most teams won't have more than one at any given time, if that.

It would hurt the QoC a little bit, but 32 guys across all of the CHL is not going to kill them (especially with the high turnover as it is) and it does give other guys a chance to shine.

Plus I don't know if having guys like Robertson go down for their D+2 is even good for the league. I can't imagine anyone enjoys watching a guy who's good enough for the NHL playoffs to sleepwalk to 1.5 goals/game against their team. Maybe it's interesting for a few games just to be able to settle the bar bet of how much an NHLer would score in the CHL. Imagine if Marner had to stay down for D+2 because of a lockout, is that a good situation for the CHL? He'd be PPG+ in the AHL as is, now put him in a league where his opponents are still his size.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

We really have. Most teams have some big misses in the first round. The bad part is because of the NHL's hard cap system, you get punished by drafting god firsts every year. Once they got Nylander, Marner, Matthews 3 years ina row it meant some tough cap manouvering.

Thing is we have also hit on last half of the first round and seconds as our first picks.