Has there actually been any top 6F/3D Russian that refused to come over ? I think no. The only guys who bolt or do not come over are the ones that arent that good and will have o play in the AHL or the 4th line, so they prefer to stay. Top Russians always come over. So to me the only Russian issues are viewing, and thats recent..
There's a lot more to making these picks than simply when they'll come over. Our current regime likes to be hands-on and directly involved in players development and influences and we've been seeing positive results with our young players.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we don't know anything about these Russian kids as they don't get the coverage like players in other markets do. I follow CHL and NCAA players closely and spend a lot of time reading about them in respective leagues and some of their local news which often has some good inside info. We hear a lot about who are good dressing room guys, who aren't etc. We fans have zero connections to insider info from Russian hockey circles. That's why it's ignorant not to trust our management team who have people closer to the situation (i.e. Bobrov's father working for SKA hockey ops) who do their due diligence on everything.
I'm getting vibes that Habs hockey ops like Demidov and I had vibes last year that they didn't like Michkov. I'm a big fan of Demidov and Silayev but the only things I've read about their personality, work ethic etc are a few quotes from legendary Igor Larionov (Silayev's KHL coach) who seems to really like the kid. If our brass pass on them, they'll have their reasons.
In any event, we're going to be adding a very strong prospect to our organization tonight. Today is a good day for the Habs no matter what.