Mintyukov got slept on in his draft year for a couple reasons (I remember watching stuff on him and really wondering why he wasn’t in the jiricek/nemec tier)
- people thought he sucked defensively because he came from a Saginaw system where he was essentially a 4th forward and playing high risk was part of the game plan.
- Russia wasn’t in the world juniors, so he never got a chance to show he could actually play system defense prior to draft.
He is basically 2nd pairing dmen, playing lybushkin …. But he’s on the top power play unit, limited time on PK.
He is solid defensively, can still def improve tho…. He uses his body well for a 19 year old, has a bit of a mean streak in him…. Hits a lot more than I thought he would and is constantly involved in skirmishes and defending his teammates.
He is very quick to turn up ice, if the other team makes a bad dump in, or turn over…. He’s def pushing the play.
The biggest flaw he’s has for me so far is that he seems to occasionally get stuck out for long shifts and I’d say he doesn’t shoot enough.
For a 19 year old dmen, you can’t really ask for more than he’s giving us right now tho, I think he’s prob surpassing everyone’s expectations for him right now, outside of that sharks fan that’s been calling him the next makar