Nikishin vs Edvinsson

[FriendlyGhost92]

I think Nikishin will be more physical and bring more offense, more Seider-like impact level.

I don't think Edvinsson reaches that level.

Ehh, this is kind of a weird evaluation against Ed, IMO.

Literally the first thing that stood out for Ed in the NHL was MacKinnon trying to make a zone entry and running into an absolute brick wall. As for the offense, I think that actually might be the kind Edvinsson needs to work out. He kinda jumps into the play at the wrong times periodically and gets in trouble when the puck starts going the other way.

 

[norrisnick]

All this talk about Edvinsson’s productivity but he never came close to the year Nikishin just had. Could be that the KHL is watered down but Russian sources are saying that not only can Nikishin score but he’s an aggressive defender and plays with an edge. I think it’s a closer debate than many here realize but we have to acknowledge that Nikishin is an extremely unique prospect and hard to project.

Neither did Nikishin at 19. We'll see what Edvinsson does at 21 when he gets there. Again, I doubt Simon's main impact will be in offense as he's not likely to play a lot of PP with the personnel around him, but that's fine.

 

[RedHawkDown]

Both are hard to project as both have unicorn skill sets. I went with Edvinsson because he’s been better at the equivalent age. He’s only now entering his 21 yo season.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Nikishin has a higher floor, but I still think there's a chance Edvinsson becomes a unicorn/superstar dman with his skill/size package so I'll take him.

Agree with this. Nikishin has made it a lot closer than it would’ve been a few years ago, but still Edvinsson. He’s also like a year and half younger, so Edvinsson might be far past where Nikishin is in another year and a half.

Not sure how the KHL will translate. That's the great unknown for me.

Not true. People always say this, and then they always translate well, as long as it’s not some 28 year old at the peak of their career that was never actually any good before they had the two seasons of their career for AK Bars.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Nikishin was the best defenseman in the second best league in the world last season and finished top 10 in League scoring. He plays both sides at a high-end level. The only point in favor of Edvinsson right now is that he's a draft year behind.

 

[norrisnick]

Not true. People always say this, and then they always translate well, as long as it’s not some 28 year old at the peak of their career that was never actually any good before they had the two seasons of their career for AK Bars.

Why are a 20 or 21yo's stats translatable but not anyone else's? What's that magic?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Why are a 20 or 21yo's stats translatable but not anyone else's? What's that magic?

Because they are doing it at a much younger age in non-prime years. The KHL is known to many fans as the league players go to after they can’t play in the NHL anymore, and that’s true, but you also have to account for that a sizable percentage of the good players in the world are Russian, most of them start out in that league, and hitting different benchmarks of achievement along the way is a good indicator of future success (doing so in the second best league doesn’t hurt either). Look at basically all the best U-23 seasons in the KHL from the last 15 years. All those players ended up good NHL’ers. It’s pretty similar to comparing it to like the best CHL prospects of the last 15 years. Almost all those guys ended up good NHL’ers, yet it’s probably even more predictive with KHL because it’s very high caliber men’s pro hockey. Closest thing there is to the NHL.

 

[norrisnick]

Because they are doing it at a much younger age in non-prime years. The KHL is known to many fans as the league players go to after they can’t play in the NHL anymore, and that’s true, but you also have to account for that a sizable percentage of the good players in the world are Russian, most of them start out in that league, and hitting different benchmarks of achievement along the way is a good indicator of future success (doing so in the second best league doesn’t hurt either). Look at basically all the best U-23 seasons in the KHL from the last 15 years. All those players ended up good NHL’ers. It’s pretty similar to comparing it to like the best CHL prospects of the last 15 years. Almost all those guys ended up good NHL’ers, yet it’s probably even more predictive with KHL because it’s very high caliber men’s pro hockey. Closest thing there is to the NHL.

Basically all is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting. There are just as many outstanding U-23 KHL seasons that didn't amount to anything in the NHL if they even came over as ones that hit big. Kaprizov, Panarin, Tarasenko, Kuzmenko are overshadowing a lot of iffy Russian kids.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Basically all is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting. There are just as many outstanding U-23 KHL seasons that didn't amount to anything in the NHL if they even came over as ones that hit big. Kaprizov, Panarin, Tarasenko, Kuzmenko are overshadowing a lot of iffy Russian kids.

I said basically all. Not all. There are 1-2 examples that didn’t amount to regular NHL players, but you are overdoing it to say there are a lot.

It also depends how we want to define it. The best U-23 seasons are guys like Tarasenko, Kuznetsov, Kaprizov, Buchnevich, Radulov, Panarin, Shestyorkin, Sorokin, and players like that. If we wanted, we could include a player like Gavrikov that didn’t put up the points, yet had one of the best U-23 seasons.

I don’t think a 6’4 defenseman with significant offense and defense drafted pretty high for a Russian playing for the best team in Russian hockey is as likely to bust as maybe 1 or 2 of the small wingers playing for a lesser team.

 

[newfy]

Nikishin was the best defenseman in the second best league in the world last season and finished top 10 in League scoring. He plays both sides at a high-end level. The only point in favor of Edvinsson right now is that he's a draft year behind.

Hes a year and a half younger, hes played at an elite level in great leagues, has a notable size/reach advantage, and a major skating advantage to go along with his obvious draft pedigree as well.

Theres plenty of points in Edvinssons favour