I think offense is offense and playing time in the AHL is better than riding the bench in the KHL
Where have I heard this before, funny that other players can develop in the AHL but not Russians?
Historically and statistically speaking Russian forward prospects have not done well in the AHL while they have done well when developing in Russia. There's a very clear pattern in the last 10 years. There are exceptions like with anything else (Kucherov, Svechnikov, who themselves are kind of exceptions as a Hart winner and a #2 draft pick) but the general trend is that it is much better for Russian forwards to spend several years in Russia before coming over to NA.
If he's doing this well in the VHL, I'm sure he'll be in the KHL next year, especially given that SKA has usually had depth on the wings but not down the middle. While development through the KHL is
different than the NA system in terms of ice-time and role it is not
worse for Russian forwards, despite not getting prime roles and tons of ice time right away. In fact it looks to be much more beneficial instead of going the AHL route.