Me neither. How far back do you have to go to find a Russian of note taken in the first round who did not come over to North America? any in the last 2 decades? Sure, you may have to wait a year or two longer while a contract gets played out, but if a Russain can play at a high level in the NHL, make no mistake that they will be here by the time they are 21/22 in most cases. All that said, it is not necessarily a bad thing for the Hawks where the plan appears to be to suck for the next several years and stack up high end talent. Michkov playing men in Russia while we suck and hopefully rack up a couple more top 5 picks in the '24 & '25 drafts is not much different then Bedard or Fantilli getting thrown into the deep end on a couple of terrible Hawks teams over the next 2 season. Going into the deep end at the NHL level is just as likely to end up being the Jack Hughes expereince in NJ where the first couple of NHL seasons are some growing pains and 3 years out before you turn the corner into a star player.
I would be happier with Bedard of Fantilli as you have no questions or waiting and they project pretty easily to be top line talents. But if the lotto balls bounce outside of the top 2, you're still getting a pretty nice piece to build off at 3 or 4. Maybe it turns out as Cam Barker at #3 redux with Malkin and Ovi going 1 + 2, but I think Carlsson and Michkov have floors of being way better than the modern day equivalent of Barker.
