Sergachev, Provorov, Radulov, Kucherov, Namestnikov, Kulikov, Abramov, Svechnikov, Trenin and Grigorenko all have played in the CHL and look fine to me. Plus you have Alexeyev, Mikhnin, Minulin, Koltygin, Poddubnyi, Popugayev, Rubinchik, Samorukov, Chekhovich, Dadadzhanov and Grishakov all in the CHL and all playing well.
So yeaahh... riiiggghhhttt.
You know what? It gets really boring to repa the same stuff. You can rigg your "stats" however you want.
The best way for Kostin to come back to him is to stay in Russia. Dynamo is a good team to be and develop on. In due time he can go to NA as a complete player.
Call me when those are all NHL stars.
Alexeyev, Mikhnin, Minulin, Koltygin, Poddubnyi, Popugayev, Rubinchik, Samorukov, Chekhovich, Dadadzhanov and Grishakov
Same goes for Sergachev, Svechnkov(btw the older Svechnikov doesn't look anything close to what he was in Russia already), Abramov and Trenin btw. Let's stay with the facts. And facts are players who are already past juniors.
So now to your typical NA rigging of that CHL vs. Russia argument.
Right away playing a couple of games in the CHL doesn't mean being developed by the CHL. Those players you mentioned also played in russian junior leagues, so whose product are they now?
1.Provorov is a special case. He left Russia very early, way earlier than it normally happens. It worked out for him. I'm fine with it. He is a Russian who is american/canadian trained basically. In the times of the huge development trouble with defencemen in Russia I will take it gladly, but his case proves nothing in our discussion, bacause then we'd have to talk about kids leaving Russia right after elementary school. That's not something that is going to happen often.
2.In a different manner same applies to Namestnikov. There is definitely not going to be a discussion about the sheer ability of both systems do develop hockey players. So the curious case of Russians failing to develop in the CHL is not due to some systemic failure of the CHL. It is obviously that culture difference. Not only the most talked about culture shock, but the diffrence in hockey culture and even more so the change of hockey culture they have to make at a very important age. Namestnikov was born in the US. In a way it was much easier for him to accomodate both sytales of hockey as he moved from the US to Russia and back again. It's the guys like Provorov and Namestnikov(and Radulov) that prove the opposite of your claim because they rae the exceptions from the rule. They aren't Russians who start their development in Russia and then leave at age 17-18 and continue developing in NA. Their path is different.
3.Radulov broke his contract and all that, yes. But he came back to Russia where he completed his development and became a very russian style type of player. He also left btw because something wasn't really working for him in the NHL. I'm pretty ure he wouldn't become the player he is now if he stayed with the Preds then.
4.Kucherov has played around 30 games in the CHL and 3 full seasons in the MHL. He is alos the most talented player of a couple of birth years in the world. Those will always be successful, even with a stone to their ankles. Whether his stint in the CHL heped or hindered him is quite a question. It is mypersonal opinion and nothing else, that he'd be better for with CSKA for that time span.
5.That is even more obvious for Grigorenko(Kucherov's linemate in Russia) who nearly ruined his career with his jump to NA. He is coming around barely this time, but he will never be close to his projected ceiling before he left.
6.Kulikov is nowhere near what he was talked about at draft day. I don't see how he is a story of success. While as mentioned before, there are probelms in Russia with developing defencemen, so I won't go out and claim he would become a great defenceman in Russia now.
I can point you to a tonne of Russian who couldn't even sniff the AHL that developed in Russia.
What is that even good for? There is aton of Canadians who never made the AHL. So what? We're talking about top-prospects. We all know the guys who ultimately make it in the NHL or KHL too are the pinnacle of a huge amount of players who never reach the levels.
And I can point you to every single russian star in the NHL. They all developed in Russia. There has to be a system to that.
Development has a lot to do with player work ethic. Maybe guys like Yakupov and Burmistrov were just plain old lazy hence why they didn't take the steps forward that other Russian prospects with better work ethic seem to be able to do.
Well, then there seems to be a problem with the CHL again. It somehow seems to influence their work ethic. Not serious her. To question Yakupov's work ethic is just ridiculous. I also know Burmistrov fairly well as a fellow guy from Kazan. Work ethic was never his problem. He was just made to "change his style" for no good.
