Prospect Info: LW Viktor Neuchev -- Taken 74th overall in 2022

[Club]

Stud

 

[Ralonzo]

6 foot 2 and 165 pounds??? Jesus that's LANKY. Got a lot of filling out to do.

Does this look lanky to you?



I think he lives in that room.

 

[truthbluth]

Does this look lanky to you?

Yes? Those skinny little legs look lanky. He’s clearly in shape, and has biceps and abs, but still, yes, very lanky.

 

[Chainshot]

Yes? Those skinny little legs look lanky. He’s clearly in shape, and has biceps and abs, but still, yes, very lanky.

Yeah, consider some of the guys like Zhitnik who even in the '90's had absolute tree trunks for legs, those pixie sticks are not yet on par with some of the bodies at the NHL level. Luckily, he's got time to make every day leg day.

 

[Chainshot]

Also, it'll be interesting to see if the off-season skating work include getting more meat on those pins.

More BB content - the compare him to Arvidsson:

If we placed him on a KHL ice surface right now, he might get overwhelmed during backchecks, and fail to be able to beat opposing defenseman one-on-one if his hands let him down, since he can’t separate, making him overly reliant on his frame. There is some hope though. Arvidsson faced a similar predicament in his draft season that saw him get overlooked. Like Neuchev, the one on ice indicator that presented itself for potential success was the energy, the will to get the job done, and Viktor has that quality. This can be backed up by some of his defensive blocking rates, much in the same way it can be backed up by Adam Sykora. It’s not a coincidence that two of the most competitive players in the draft are willing to sacrifice their bodies when the play calls for it.

He doesn't play center, but you wouldn’t know it by how often he becomes the first man back through the neutral zone for his team. Usually a players on ice mentality is a further extension of how they think off the ice, and if that’s the case with Neuchev, then he still has a decent chance of improving his skating base enough to allow him to at least still be a relevant middle 6 contributor for a team if his development goes right.

 

[HaNotsri]

Does this look lanky to you?



I think he lives in that room.

Östlund could probably crush him in a twerk off. Hockey 101: you need a big ass to protect the puck.

 

[Woodhouse]

Per Avto's press release on the selection: "Note that at the moment Neuch is in Reftinsky, where he is preparing for a new season as part of the Gornyak-UMK team." The VHL preseason schedule for Gornyak-UMMK begins July 26th.

 

[old kummelweck]

Per Avto's press release on the selection: "Note that at the moment Neuch is in Reftinsky, where he is preparing for a new season as part of the Gornyak-UMK team." The VHL preseason schedule for Gornyak-UMMK begins July 26th.

Hmmm. So no prospect camp.

 

[Fjordy]

Hmmm. So no prospect camp.

Well that's to be expected

 

[don22]

Does this look lanky to you?



I think he lives in that room.

I agree, that's not lanky. I think there is a reason we can't see them legs, though haha. What I see is is a person who likes to work and given his frame, I think that he can definitely improve on it, which is terrific.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Sabres apparently had a 1st round grade on this kid and had him as the 3rd Russian on their board.

 

[Chainshot]

Some of Foley's comments on Neuchev -

 

[Seachd]

They really did a number on his name on the NHL Network.

 

[HaNotsri]

My favourite mystery box of the draft. The gap between him and histeam is insane, nice to know that Datsyuk will take care of him.

 

[Fjordy]

Shame on me for not hyping him before the draft.

 

[Ralonzo]

They really did a number on his name on the NHL Network.

I don't know why they're Anglicizing it like it's Ray Neufeld. It's not a difficult translation, if it were NeYUchev people would pronounce it more correctly here.

 

[Seachd]

I don't know why they're Anglicizing it like it's Ray Neufeld. It's not a difficult translation, if it were NeYUchev people would pronounce it more correctly here.

The spelling I understand, and I don’t have any problem with the transliteration “Neuchev”, because that’s how it’s spelled in Russian. With foreign names in English, we tend to favor spelling over pronunciation.

But on the NHL Network, they were saying “Noychev”, as if he’s German. English speakers are never going to pronounce foreign names “correctly”, but it seems strange to assign a pronunciation from a third language to the name.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

 

[Dingo44]

 

[elchud]

He can replace Skinner on the roster in 5 years

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Shame on me for not hyping him before the draft.

We keep you around so you can tell us about hidden Russians and you dropped the ball

 

[Fjordy]

We keep you around so you can tell us about hidden Russians and you dropped the ball

My bad

 

[Ralonzo]

The spelling I understand, and I don’t have any problem with the transliteration “Neuchev”, because that’s how it’s spelled in Russian. With foreign names in English, we tend to favor spelling over pronunciation.

But on the NHL Network, they were saying “Noychev”, as if he’s German. English speakers are never going to pronounce foreign names “correctly”, but it seems strange to assign a pronunciation from a third language to the name.

Thinking about it you’re right, it’s у not Ю so as you said the literal translation is right. Listening to the Russian highlights they get it sort of a slurred Neyu half the time and Ne-oo sometime but the ‘Neu‘ over here is going to be recognized as Teutonic mostly, New or Noi. It’s just up to the announcers who want to take the effort, which I gotta give a prop, Jack Edwards is one of the better ones (Ku-LEE-kov).

It is interesting that of the Sabre draft picks, the first 3 were fairly consensus first round grades, Fortin said the goalie they were gonna take in the first maybe, and that Neuchev is a first round grade by the Sabres, and even Lindgren was scraping bottom of first round by scouting services at times. Normally teams that drill a draft for value don’t also have high picks, nor a volume of picks. This is the draft that Murray could have had in 2015, if he wasn’t a drunken sailor and understood value.

 

[Ace]

Murray’s drafting tells me he wouldn’t have had this draft if he had every pick in the first round

 

[Chainshot]

Murray’s drafting tells me he wouldn’t have had this draft if he had every pick in the first round

Murray would’ve traded all but one pic and Buffalo would now have Patrick and Evander Kane, Toews, D’Angelo, and a host of other Dudebros.