Happy with Marat cooking in the KHL. There has been data showing this is the better route for Russian prospects iirc.
Prospect Info: General Prospect Discussion Thread 2021-22
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At least SKA will now have a vested interest in Marat's development, so they'll have a reason to give him more ice time.
Same thought. As long as he's getting minutes SKA's a fine place for him to be.
DeagleJenkins
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For sure. They look terrible right now. Can't make or receive a pass, all sorts of defensive blunders, and the goalies are bad.
@57special 's post here has been kind of stuck in my craw, too. Not that I think the AHL only develops grinders but from the SKA games I've seen Khusnutdinov fits well with what they've got going there. If his minutes go back to what he was getting in September and October it's hard to see Iowa as a step up for his development. The only downside would be if they were banking on him making it to the NHL in the next 2 years.
DeagleJenkins
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indeed hopefully it doesnt ruin cap issues but he should not have been in the plan for the next 3 years. not saying he couldnt make the roster but for cap reasons he should of been a possible bright spot rather than a set move. seeing how he is developing their along with the possibility that he could be a well rounded player similar to kap but at 21 instead of 24, i would not be mad at all. the only reason this is concerning is the russian factor of is he going to come over, other than that i have zero issue with him staying there.
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I'm purely concerned about if he'll get the chance to play center at all during those two years, because so far he's been a winger for SKA. Not really ideal to have one of your only two center prospects playing wing until he's 22. The other concern is how upset other people are going to be if he's in the Calder race at age 22. That's practically 30 in regards to the Calder. He shouldn't be eligible. He's too old. They need to put an age cap on that trophy.
Dickie Dunn
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The result might be preferable but once again, the intent sucks. I prefer it when the organization has at least some ability to direct a players progression and that is now gone. He goes from 'pipeline' to 'maybe' with one signature.
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MuckOG
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The biggest concern is that there is a lack of talent, youth and depth at center for Minnesota; McBain isn't signed (and he'll be a free agent next summer), Khovanov has turned out to be a bust. They have Rossi and who else? And Rossi has already been banged up a bit in the AHL. There isn't any telling if Marat will be coming over when his contract is finished or not. A two year contract turns into a three year contract pretty quickly. Russia isn't going to let their star players leave easily.
They need to keep adding to the positional depth, but prospect-wise they're probably better off than they've been in a while now.
Rossi, Khusnutdinov and McBain all look like quality prospects right now, even if the latter two are sort of in the wind. The organizational shallowness at center actually helps with McBain, and between that and the various BC/Wild connections I'm not all that worried about signing him. We'll see with Khusnutdinov, but the extension doesn't worry me all that much.
Khovanov's definitely fallen into Sokolov territory, but he did stick it out in the ECHL until finally getting the AHL call-up. Not that he had many options. It sounds like the puck skills and shot are still there, so if he can buckle down he might still turn into a Duhaime or Dewar level prospect. It sounds like it's up to him.
Bankier's cooled a little with Kamloops, but he's still at about a PPG. Worth keeping an eye on.
I do think we could use another center prospect in that Khusnutdinov tier, but there should be opportunities for that this summer.
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We definitely need more good forward prospects. But Guerin/Brackett have to actually go out and do something about it. All for taking BPA at the draft, but if we're going to do stuff like taking a goalie and three defensemen with four of our first five picks, Guerin needs to trade someone for something. We have no real top six right wings and only one, maybe two, centers in the system.
Victorious Secret
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If you dismiss all the possible prospects that aren't guaranteed of turning out you are only going to be not happy, tsk. Hockey Prospecting's model is very optimistic for Minnesota, even for the lesser C's (Shaw, Pillar, Bankier), HP's model has >40% chance that group becomes an NHLer (200+ games). About as good as you can get from a 3rd and 2 4ths.
Hockey Prospecting has us ranked 3rd for position players, only behind the Ducks and Kings.
It's hard for me to see the team not pivoting toward futures this summer, though it's impossible to say what exactly that'll look like. The rhetoric is always going to be "Rah rah, win the Cup," but we're going to see at least one or two quality roster players moved for picks/prospects.
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Yeah, we'll see what he actually does. Hopefully he doesn't back himself into a corner. I don't think he's going to get what we all want.
DeagleJenkins
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Hard to say with him. He was a 2020 draft eligible guy who was pretty far behind on a Kamloops team that starred Zary, primarily, as a drafted prospect. Stankoven outperformed Pillar better in 2019-20 as a 2021 draft eligible player. He just wasn't a good prospect in his draft year. In 2021 as an overager he had a breakout year, albeit in a shortened season, and Stankoven and Zary still outperformed him (in even shorter seasons). Another way to look at his situation is that he'll be in the AHL next season because he's aged out of the CHL. Bankier will still be in the CHL next season.
I think Bankier and Pillar both project as potential bottom six guys. I think with Pillar's skating, if he keeps developing his offensive skills, he has an outside chance as a middle six guy. Like a Greenway level (not even remotely the same type of player though).
I think Novak is a better RW prospect, I think he projects as a middle six winger with an outside chance at top six if he can manage the physical aspect of the game with his size. He's much more offensively inclined than Pillar, but still not a likely top six guy.
DeagleJenkins
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i see, maybe more on the level of beckman without the shot quality rather than greenway? I do like the offense novak has shown this season. he looks to have a decent shot but i have never actually seen him play. hoping to catch him at the WJC if i can find the time to watch any of the games.
- Dec 10, 2012
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Beckman is at a higher level than Pillar. Beckman has a real shot at being a good second liner. I think Pillar might be a player who spends the next three or four years in the AHL, and then comes up to the NHL at like 24, like Duhaime and Sturm have. Obviously they were in college for a lot of those years, not the AHL, but that's the idea. Can come up and provide some offense in the bottom six. Maybe Pitlick is a more apt comparison for what he can be in the NHL. Though Pitlick also developed in college rather than the AHL.
"Eric Lindros"
I like Rossi. I hope he gets his 9 NHL gp this year, at the very least. He actually reminds me of Zuccarello a bit. Shifty rather than fast, smart, great passer, good not great shot. Defense is good at the AHL level, but needs to work on his FO's.
I am not sure, but he might be the kind of guy that does better in the NHL with the right linemates than in the AHL with the wrong ones. Once Boldy comes back then he will have a great linemate in the AHL, but right now it's Rau, and a revolving door of players.
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That's hard to say; at one time they had Granlund, Larsson, Phillips, and Coyle. Not all of them turned out that great.
Has McBain mentioned anything about signing with the Wild or any indication? He's from Toronto, his father played in Winnipeg - hard to tell what is going on with him and until he signs, I don't think we can count on him as depth. We literally have Rossi and that might be it for the next few seasons. This was why I was concerned that Minnesota drafted Peart in the 2nd round. It went from Rossi, Khovanov, Marat to...Rossi and maybe McBain?
The problem with Khovanov is between his ears and he hasn't shown any inclination of being anything more than Sokolov at this point.
I'm not dismissing any of them, but it's hard not to be concerned when your center depth for the next two years is Rossi and...Pitlick? Possibly McBain? Marat is gone for the next two years and I don't consider him part of the immediate future for the Wild - sort of like Kaprizov. Pillar is an overager BTW, so, his numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. I just don't see much depth at the group that can push guys like Ek or even Rossi.
But the biggest issue is that the Wild have one S tier (Rossi) and then a bunch of guys that may top out as bottom 6 guys. Yay?
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