Prospect Info: 2020 4th Rd Selection - #106th OA - G Artur Akhtyamov (RUS) - 6'2 170

[Advanced stats]

i dont mind the pick but honestly i would not have wasted a pick in this draft on a goalie.... spam a bunch of defensmane so you have a larger chance for one of them to pan out

We need defensemen now, not in 5 years when one of them finally develops. There's no telling what our needs will be in 5 years...that's why it's highly discouraged to draft based on current positional need.

 

[Knies iT]

A great aspect about this pick is that he’s stashed in Russia. It’ll allow the Leafs to continue developing Woll/Scott with he Marlies/Growlers without having a log jam at the position in North America.

 

[Anthrax442]

A great aspect about this pick is that he’s stashed in Russia. It’ll allow the Leafs to continue developing Woll/Scott with he Marlies/Growlers without having a log jam at the position in North America.

Exactly. He will be developing there playing against men.

 

[Schenn]

Admiral Akbar

 

[Byron Bitz]

No space for goalies on the Marlies with Woll and Scott coming through so it makes sense to grab a European goalie

I worry about Scott with how inactive he is during these key developmental years. He didn’t play a single game this season and who know when next season will start.

 

[Funk21]

Is he tall enough for the height police?

This will do....

 

[Metroid]

This will do....

Best hope he doesn't shrink!

 

[The List Of Jericho]

The Leafs have the best Russian scouting in the league supposedly so gotta hope they saw something great here

 

[Ashdown2]

We need defensemen now, not in 5 years when one of them finally develops. There's no telling what our needs will be in 5 years...that's why it's highly discouraged to draft based on current positional need.

i never said that .... our defensive prospect pool is awful .. we will need them in 5 years either way

 

[Menzinger]

This was neat

 

[HansonBro]

His movement reminds me of Gustavsson. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I liked Gustavsson, and the monster had tons of potential, but he was never taught to control his movements which made him not succeed. If he can be taught to control his movements, he will end up a good goalie.

I was thinking Mrazek as a comparison

 

[indigobuffalo]

This was neat

I hope the translator clarified that Dubas was speaking optimistically and not literally.

 

[kb]

This was neat

He looked like Tavares there! lol

EDIT: Dubas I mean.

 

[daethfromabove1979]

The Leafs have the best Russian scouting in the league supposedly so gotta hope they saw something great here

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic, we’ve been awful at drafting from Russia recently. Kizimov, Kara, Chebykin, Dzierkals haven’t shown anything. Korshkov looks alright. Hope we nailed it this year with them though.

 

[The Podium]

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic, we’ve been awful at drafting from Russia recently. Kizimov, Kara, Chebykin, Dzierkals haven’t shown anything. Korshkov looks alright. Hope we nailed it this year with them though.

Zaitsev, Mikheyev, Lehtonen we all players the Leafs scouted for years. Hasnt translated to the amateur ranks yet though.

 

[The Podium]

For those who know Russian hockey what separates Akhtyamov from Askarov?

Seems like Akhtyamov had better numbers at the same age, albeit smaller sample.

 

[LaPlante94]

Wasn't sure what to think about the pick but his movement and positioning looks pretty damn good already.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Artur Akhtyamov

 

[Canada4Gold]

i never said that .... our defensive prospect pool is awful .. we will need them in 5 years either way

Given that defenceman make up about 1/3 of a team I'd say that's roughly the percentage of out good prospects are defenceman which is what you'd want.

Sandin/Robertson/Liljegren/Amirov 2/4
Hallander/Abramov/Abruzzese/Kokkonen/Hirvonen/Niemela 2/6
Lehtonen/Barabonov 1/2
Scott/Woll/Villeneuve/SDA 1/4

That's 6 of 16 are defencemen. That's an acceptable proportion. Perhaps the D are further along so the 18/19 aged portion looks very weak. But as a whole if the D is weak then so is the F and G.

 

[Ashdown2]

Given that defenceman make up about 1/3 of a team I'd say that's roughly the percentage of out good prospects are defenceman which is what you'd want.

Sandin/Robertson/Liljegren/Amirov 2/4
Hallander/Abramov/Abruzzese/Kokkonen/Hirvonen/Niemela 2/6
Lehtonen/Barabonov 1/2
Scott/Woll/Villeneuve/SDA 1/4

That's 6 of 16 are defencemen. That's an acceptable proportion. Perhaps the D are further along so the 18/19 aged portion looks very weak. But as a whole if the D is weak then so is the F and G.

that is clearly the incorrect way of looking at your current prospect pool ... first lehtonen and barb are not prospects, second remove the players that will likely graduate this year, third actually rank them in full. Do this and ...

you will see that the team might have at most 2 dmen prospects in there top 15 maybe even 1 ... its a subjective list but there will not be alot there

 

[Canada4Gold]

that is clearly the incorrect way of looking at your current prospect pool ... first lehtonen and barb are not prospects, second remove the players that will likely graduate this year, third actually rank them in full. Do this and ...

you will see that the team might have at most 2 dmen prospects in there top 15 maybe even 1 ... its a subjective list but there will not be alot there

Even if you manipulate the list with that criteria I see at least 3 in Kokkonen, Niemela, and Villenueve.

I don't understand why we're removing the not yet graduated guys though. Does Sandin and Liljegren playing in the NHL next year make it more likely we're going to need defenceman in the future than if they start to stagnate a little bit and stay in the AHL for another year? We still control them until they're 27 either way which is 6 and 7 years away.

Similar question for Lehtonen. We have a young defenceman, regardless of whether he's on a prospect list or not having him in the system reduces the need for a defenceman in the future if he works out. I obviously didn't include Dermott, but the same logic holds there. A team with Dermott needs 1 less D for the next 5 years than a team without Dermott and that doesn't show up on prospect lists.

 

[Ashdown2]

Even if you manipulate the list with that criteria I see at least 3 in Kokkonen, Niemela, and Villenueve.

I don't understand why we're removing the not yet graduated guys though. Does Sandin and Liljegren playing in the NHL next year make it more likely we're going to need defenceman in the future than if they start to stagnate a little bit and stay in the AHL for another year? We still control them until they're 27 either way which is 6 and 7 years away.

Similar question for Lehtonen. We have a young defenceman, regardless of whether he's on a prospect list or not having him in the system reduces the need for a defenceman in the future if he works out. I obviously didn't include Dermott, but the same logic holds there. A team with Dermott needs 1 less D for the next 5 years than a team without Dermott and that doesn't show up on prospect lists.

lehtonen is 26 hes not a prospect. can people stop calling him a prospect .. hes 3 years older than dermott ..... is calle rosen still a prospect ?

you remove graduating guys because they are no longer in your prospect pool ... thats the way i look at it. just because you have some guys that graduated this year , that doesnt mean you dont need defense in 2 or 3 years. Sure its less likely but defensemen are one of the most valuable positions in the organization. Not only for organization strenghth but also as trade chips and cap relief because they cost less.

 

[The List Of Jericho]

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic, we’ve been awful at drafting from Russia recently. Kizimov, Kara, Chebykin, Dzierkals haven’t shown anything. Korshkov looks alright. Hope we nailed it this year with them though.

No sarcasm, former Kings scout Mike Futa on the Sportsnet broadcast stated it during the first round. Something about the Leafs having hired the best scout in all of Russia....didn't catch the name though but I'm sure others caught it. Not sure how long he's been employed by the Leafs though.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

For those who know Russian hockey what separates Akhtyamov from Askarov?

Seems like Akhtyamov had better numbers at the same age, albeit smaller sample.

Askarov is 8 months younger.

Askarov has been an International Star his entire life, while Akhtyamov has never been on an International team.

Askarov was playing in the VHL this year, which is extremely rare for people his age, while Akhtyamov played in the MHL, which lacks parity and is easy to artificially inflate your stats (he only had a 5-6-0 record and a .912 against good teams).

Askarov is a lot more refined and gifted both technically and physically.

The stats are deceiving, but at least we have him for like 10 years before his rights expire so it is plenty of time for him to become the first Russian goalie without serious International exposure to make the NHL in a long time (if not forever).

 

[Canada4Gold]

lehtonen is 26 hes not a prospect. can people stop calling him a prospect .. hes 3 years older than dermott ..... is calle rosen still a prospect ?

you remove graduating guys because they are no longer in your prospect pool ... thats the way i look at it. just because you have some guys that graduated this year , that doesnt mean you dont need defense in 2 or 3 years. Sure its less likely but defensemen are one of the most valuable positions in the organization. Not only for organization strenghth but also as trade chips and cap relief because they cost less.

Personally I don't remove guys until they graduate. We don't know what the future holds. Are you removing Robertson too? I think it's more likely he's here all season than either Sandin or Lilejgren given we have 4 D for the bottom pair. I get the point on Lehtonen and Barabonov, prospect label or not, if they're not good enough now they're literally irrelevant. But I don't agree on the graduating next year thing.

Even if we did remove them 3 it's still 3/11 and I think the next batch is some combination of Korshkov, Hollowell, Kral, Brooks, Rasanen, Koster, Ovchinnikov, and Miettinen. So 4 of the next 8 would also be D for me. I don't think D ios any weaker than the F or G side of things.