The MHL is a "horrendous league" (according to you), but if it was so horrendous, why did the Hawks draft a player that played in it? It doesn't make sense, unless the Hawks are just idiots, which hopefully is not the case. And given other organizations are willing to draft players that played in the MHL with that level of draft capital, I presume that's not it. It doesn't matter what league a prospect is playing in all that much. NHL teams are drafting based on a combination of a player's resume to date as well as their individual attributes and how they think those project going forward. By your logic, Lukas Reichel would have been a terrible pick because historically, very few players have come out of the German youth hockey ranks, and while it's a bit too early to do a celebratory dance, I like that pick based on where we are three years later. Kantserov just needs to keep playing and focusing on getting better, and hopefully it'll sort itself out. If he busts, it's just because that's how it goes, but I reckon someone like you will attribute it to KHL/MHL and ignore the multitude of CHL/NCAA players in that range that also bust every year.