Abbotsford Canucks | Season Starting

VanJack

Registered User
Jul 11, 2014
22,792
16,293
Biggest thing was trying to put an extremely raw Russian teenager in the AHL. Absolute development malpractice.
That was my thought earlier in this thread, until I went back and looked at his stats on Hockey DB.

Actually, for a teenager, his first couple of years in Abbotsford weren't too bad. He played 62 games as an 18-year and had 8 goals 10 assists in 2021-22. The next season he actually suited up in 67 games, and increased his production to 17 goals and 12 assists.

His defensive awareness was lacking at times and he was prone to turnovers that cost him some time riding the pine in both seasons. But that's no more or less than what you'd expect from any teenager trying to adjust to NA pro hockey from the junior leagues in Belarus, which might not even be the hockey equivalent of the BCHL.

It was last season where things hit the wall. Chronically injured, Colliton appeared to lose confidence in him, and he only got into 24 games the entire year.

So while he probably would have benefitted going back to junior, his career in Abby to date hasn't been a complete loss. And this year with a new coach, some maturity and renewed confidence, it looks like he could be finally breaking out.
 

Vector

Moderator
Feb 2, 2007
27,944
47,763
Junktown
That was my thought earlier in this thread, until I went back and looked at his stats on Hockey DB.

Actually, for a teenager, his first couple of years in Abbotsford weren't too bad. He played 62 games as an 18-year and had 8 goals 10 assists in 2021-22. The next season he actually suited up in 67 games, and increased his production to 17 goals and 12 assists.

His defensive awareness was lacking at times and he was prone to turnovers that cost him some time riding the pine in both seasons. But that's no more or less than what you'd expect from any teenager trying to adjust to NA pro hockey from the junior leagues in Belarus, which might not even be the hockey equivalent of the BCHL.

It was last season where things hit the wall. Chronically injured, Colliton appeared to lose confidence in him, and he only got into 24 games the entire year.

So while he probably would have benefitted going back to junior, his career in Abby to date hasn't been a complete loss. And this year with a new coach, some maturity and renewed confidence, it looks like he could be finally breaking out.

I watched him quite a bit in Abbotsford for several seasons and his defensive game and attention to details were not existent. He was somewhat productive offensively but was making mistake after mistake at every other aspect of the game. I suspect the language barrier and poor development structure in his early seasons did not help.

He was in over his head trying to learn everything at once far away from home in a language he barely understood. I commend him for trying but he should have been in junior and taken a standard development path.
 

RobertKron

Registered User
Sep 1, 2007
16,221
9,853
I watched him quite a bit in Abbotsford for several seasons and his defensive game and attention to details were not existent. He was somewhat productive offensively but was making mistake after mistake at every other aspect of the game. I suspect the language barrier and poor development structure in his early seasons did not help.

He was in over his head trying to learn everything at once far away from home in a language he barely understood. I commend him for trying but he should have been in junior and taken a standard development path.

Yeah, like "but that's no more or less than what you'd expect from any teenager trying to adjust to NA pro hockey from the junior leagues in Belarus, which might not even be the hockey equivalent of the BCHL" is basically exactly a word-for-word description of why, given his background, it was stupid to just dump him straight into NA pro hockey when he was 18.
 
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