The resident draft guru's have been super high on not just Karpovich, but pretty much all the late round russian D-men we've drafted recently.
I'm not saying that he isn't good or something (I actually didn't see him for a year at all, that's also why I'm wondering), but if talking about the Russian/Belarussian guys I'd rank Orlov ahead of him pretty confidently, however I can agree that his tools make him more interesting than Barabosha.
Orlov has a great argument here, especially with the skating. The kid can really fly, and he's quite an impressive defender. I'm very high on the upside.
@Guadana and I both like Karpovich's combination of defensive acumen, physicality, size/skating, and shooting. Admittedly he's not a sure thing and has a lot of development ahead of him.
Im very conservative with Barabosha. He isnt my top ten. As Caser, I think Devils have very intriguing prospect in Orlov. But even as VHL player and situational KHL player Karpovich will still have 2 years pro experience after the draft, so I dont see any problems with his development. Some of unimpressive forwards who shows non NHL level production for D+1 or D+2 with skating issues or lack or two way game will have votes above Karpovich because... you know why. They are the players who will never be impactful on NHL level like we see many times. Or even will not be a part of NHL level trade most likely.
Orlov seems too be a bit of a sleeper draft pick , even amongst our own fanbase. Playing in the KHL at age 18/19 as a defensman is pretty impressive.
He was. But that is disregarding the level of competition in the development camp. Made that same mistake often when I first started going to them. Several more experienced older or college players often looked far superior to the other camp attendees. Few of these players received AHL deals. Let alone ELCs.
