LD Alexander Nikishin - SKA St.Petersburg, KHL (2020, 69th, CAR)

[De Montreal]

His stats are a bit underwhelming in the playoff, did he play hurt?

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Season is over for SKA after surprising second round loss.

Nikishin was hurt and likely wouldn't have returned even if SKA had advanced

 

[SlafySZN]

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Reads like a smart deflection by his girlfriend to me, I see no information content in that response.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Reads like a smart deflection by his girlfriend to me, I see no information content in that response.

In the same interview she said she wasn't sure he would marry her at all, they hadn't talked about it yet. So it looks like they aren't talking a lot about future...

 

[wetcoast]

Sounds like the Canes will wait another year for him.

 

[wetcoast]

This is where the "Russian Factor" can come in. The CBA rules means he will sign an ELC deal when they are 22-23 or whatever, and likely have to leave some money on the table to do so compared to what he could likely get in KHL salary. Now players are willing to do this in order to chase the upside of a big NHL deal, so you basically never see guys that aren't willing to take a go at it. Since it's an ELC, he is also going to be waiver exempt.

When these guys come to camp, the coach is (not entirely wrongfully) just looking at them as another young guy that hasn't seen NHL action yet and doesn't care what they did in the KHL. So they are generally put into depth roles accordingly, like you would with a random player that comes from the AHL. Since they are on an ELC, they are also waiver-exempt, so when roster shuffling needs to occur, the roster politics of it will put often put on the shortlist to be sent down to the AHL if they haven't done anything yet because of their contract/exempt status. This is all made especially more exponential if the Coaches have a prejudice that presumes all Russians are entitled/don't work hard/greedy/selfish until proven otherwise.

So they go through a season of that, and then since they haven't done anything particularly notable to date in the NHL they aren't going to get a big contract offer, and will likely be offered a deal close to league minimum without assurances of a large role for the upcoming season. At that point, the cost-benefit analyis may weigh more in terms of "whatever, I'll just go back home, get a big role and make more money", so they go back to Russia, Garl does his celebratory dance about "another Russian flop" and that's the end of it.

Now, this doesn't mean a very talented player isn't going to come in, impress everyone right away and earn a big role because it'd be coaching malpractice to not give them a big role and then they get their big contract and everything works out. This happens all the time. So the "Russian Factor" is less of a factor for really talented players that are clearly amongst the top 100 players in the world, for instance. It has much more of an impact for would be depth players.

I don't disagree with what you are saying but "the Russian factor" is a factor for many making decisions in the nHL as there is a history there and the obvious advantage of playing in the KHL not AHL.

Most of the time some of the players just aren't good enough or don't want to play a role and that's fair for all players.

 

[Kaners PPGs]

Sounds like the Canes will wait another year for him.

It would have shocked me if the Canes got him over early.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Sounds like the Canes will wait another year for him.

I think the hope is he can join the team this season for their playoff run after the KHL season ends.

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/latest-news/top-prospect-alexander-nikishin-could-join-hurricanes-this-season

KHL regular season ends march 23, SKA st Petersberg will be a playoff team baring disaster, Gagarin cup last year was presented 38 days after the last day of the regular season, so that would be roughly April 30 when the playoffs could be expected to end.

Hurricanes regular season ends April 17, so it's not a lock to happen.

Edit: There's a possibility Tulsky made some promise that he needs to keep though and they have to burn a year of his ELC on this season even if it's over, but I'm not a CBA expert so I'm not sure the mechanics of that.

 

[wetcoast]

I think the hope is he can join the team this season for their playoff run after the KHL season ends.

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/latest-news/top-prospect-alexander-nikishin-could-join-hurricanes-this-season

KHL regular season ends march 23, SKA st Petersberg will be a playoff team baring disaster, Gagarin cup last year was presented 38 days after the last day of the regular season, so that would be roughly April 30 when the playoffs could be expected to end.

Hurricanes regular season ends April 17, so it's not a lock to happen.

Well that would be a huge boost to Carolina if he comes over for the playoffs as the canes always seem to disappoint in the playoffs given that they look like an extremely well constructed team and are also SC contenders on paper and then something happens in the playoffs.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Sounds like the Canes will wait another year for him.

Ya that’s always been the projected time frame for him to arrive at the end of this upcoming season when his KHL season ends

 

[Zine]

I think the hope is he can join the team this season for their playoff run after the KHL season ends.

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/latest-news/top-prospect-alexander-nikishin-could-join-hurricanes-this-season

KHL regular season ends march 23, SKA st Petersberg will be a playoff team baring disaster, Gagarin cup last year was presented 38 days after the last day of the regular season, so that would be roughly April 30 when the playoffs could be expected to end.

Hurricanes regular season ends April 17, so it's not a lock to happen.

Edit: There's a possibility Tulsky made some promise that he needs to keep though and they have to burn a year of his ELC on this season even if it's over, but I'm not a CBA expert so I'm not sure the mechanics of that.

The 2024-25 KHL season officially ends 25 May. This is the date Nikishin's contract will expire.

Although SKA has the option of terminating his contract a little earlier (if/when SKA is eliminated from playoffs).
For example Sochi did that for Khusnutdinov last year. Not sure SKA will though.

 

[HisIceness]

Can't express how excited I am for this kid to put on a Hurricanes sweater.

 

[WADEugottaBELAKthat]

Can't express how excited I am for this kid to put on a Hurricanes sweater.

Hopefully he replicates his success from the last two seasons!

 

[Alex K]

Vitaliy Kravtsov undresses Nikishin

 

[Just Linda]

Is Nikishin injured? I know he only played the one game but he didn't look off at times.

 

[TheBigLetowski]

Is Nikishin injured? I know he only played the one game but he didn't look off at times.

I definitely think they rushed him back from injury. Not saying that's why he got shook, but if he's 100%, I bet he plays that rush better.

 

[Random Comment]

I definitely think they rushed him back from injury. Not saying that's why he got shook, but if he's 100%, I bet he plays that rush better.

It’s the first game of the season. Made a gamble there.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

You know hes unreal when there is this talk of ONE play where he looked human and MUST be injured because he got beat lol

 

[BKarchitect]

You know hes unreal when there is this talk of ONE play where he looked human and MUST be injured because he got beat lol

I mean I appreciate that an honest evaluation of players includes being critical of mistakes, but yeah...we could take basically any top defenseman this century not named Nik Lidstrom (or maybe Jaccob Slavin) and create an hour long sizzle real of superstar defenders getting roasted from time to time.

If Nikishin continues to look "off" through half the season, maybe we have something to really dig into.