Who is the best Russian prospect of all time?

[TheBig08]

IQ should be the highest weight, but I don't find Michkov's IQ to be special at all. I'm actually making a video about that right now, as luck would have it...I think he's more in the Alexei Kovalev mold...

whats your yt

It is tough to say. They are very different in their styles. Ovechkin had/has a more powerful shot. Michkov has a much better IQ. I think Ovechkin had more straight line speed, but Michkov's edge work/lateral movement is way better than Ovie's. Michkov's best plays come through puck possession where as Ovie's were created from explosiveness.

Their play styles are so different it is weird to compare them, but if both were 18 and on the draft board with 0 non hockey risk to consider and I'm making the pick, I personally would take Michkov. When I evaluate players the trait I put the highest weight in is IQ. Giving IQ the highest weight could be a flaw in my evaluations that leads to me passing on a player I know will become the future all time leader in goals, but IQ is the reason Sid was better than Ovie. And IQ is the reason Gretzky was the great one. Michkov's IQ is special where as Ovie's IQ peaked at good. Hopefully saying this doesn't jinx the kids future, but it is true to how I personally evaluate and rank talent.

who would you pick just based off stats?

 

[Michael Farkas]

whats your yt

Michael Farkas

Don't just watch the game, evaluate the game. For individual player consultations and/or business inquiries, email michaelfarkas87 [a@t] gmail.

www.youtube.com

 

[TheBig08]

Michael Farkas

Don't just watch the game, evaluate the game. For individual player consultations and/or business inquiries, email michaelfarkas87 [a@t] gmail.

www.youtube.com

let me know when the videos out

 

[MrGuyPerson]

IQ should be the highest weight, but I don't find Michkov's IQ to be special at all. I'm actually making a video about that right now, as luck would have it...I think he's more in the Alexei Kovalev mold...

I have to be honest here I am pretty shocked you can watch him play and draw that conclusion. I hope that doesn't come off rude, I just genuinely have no clue how you can watch him play and come away with that opinion. It has to be you your definition of IQ that leads to that conclusion. How exactly do you define Hockey IQ?

I break it into two parts. Anticipation and reactionary. Anticipation is what made Crosby and Gretzky the GOATs. They were able to think the game ahead of everyone else. The only players I have seen anticipate the game at the level Michkov is Crosby. Nikita Kucherov is also quite impressive in this category. Reactionary is on the spot decision making. Good reactionary IQs generally make the correct next pass and operate very well within the flow of the game, but great reactionary IQs recognize openings in coverage/positioning and take advantage of them. At the highest level I would say McDavid is the king here.

Again based on how I define IQ, I cannot understand how you can draw this conclusion. Please explain how you define IQ because it clearly differs from my definition

 

[MrGuyPerson]

who would you pick just based off stats?

Michkov

 

[Michael Farkas]

let me know when the videos out

It's out...

 

[Staniowski]

If you start around the late '80s, when there was a growing chance of these guys one day playing in the NHL, Bure, Ovechkin, and Malkin might be the three biggest NHL prospects among Russian players.

 

[MrGuyPerson]

It's out...

How exactly do you define Hockey IQ?

I still need to know what you think IQ is. I can't comprehend arriving at the below conclusion :

I don't find Michkov's IQ to be special at all.

I will give your video a view if I can get behind your philosophy. I can't in good conscious watch it without hearing an explanation for having a take like this. For 2 years I have seen this kid anticipate the game at level that can sometimes cause trouble for him. And react on the spot to the smallest opening and changes in positioning on the ice. I honestly can't fathom someone legitimately having this opinion by my definition of IQ. I am not trying to be rude, I genuinely am not able comprehend how you are evaluating IQ to draw this conclusion. What do you think Hockey IQ is?

 

[Michael Farkas]

I still need to know what you think IQ is. I can't comprehend arriving at the below conclusion :

I will give your video a view if I can get behind your philosophy. I can't in good conscious watch it without hearing an explanation for having a take like this. For 2 years I have seen this kid anticipate the game at level that can sometimes cause trouble for him. And react on the spot to the smallest opening and changes in positioning on the ice. I honestly can't fathom someone legitimately having this opinion by my definition of IQ. I am not trying to be rude, I genuinely am not able comprehend how you are evaluating IQ to draw this conclusion. What do you think Hockey IQ is?

It's not so much a philosophy as it is just the definition. At its root, hockey IQ is anticipation. Now, there's a lot of things that make that up. As I show in the video, we have playmaking process and vision, there's spatial awareness, there's off-puck play like getting open offensively, positional integrity defensively, risk mitigation, etc. etc.

I don't think what you're saying is rude by any means, but there are certain aspects of Michkov's hockey sense make-up that are not as strong as others - which I point out in that video. I think an area where he's really good is his proprioceptive system - you can see that in his (what I call) "automatic puck protection" mechanism. You can also see his anticipation shine through in terms of anticipating goalie movement. This is a player that will be comfortable shooting at where hips were on a goalie, for instance, which is sort of the new wave, the new shooting advent.

So, there are a bunch of different factors that make it up. He has an interesting blend of mental game. It will almost certainly make him a shooter/goal scorer more than a playmaker or balanced attacker. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

gotta mention pre-car crash slava kozlov

 

[ozzie]

It's no surprise people are hoping on the Michkov band wagon, flavour of the month. Way to put more pressure on this kid, keep the expectations in check.

Ovechkin, obviously looking back now it's easy. But was any Russian considered to be the total package like Ovie? Bone crushing scoring machine? Russian Cam Neely - I think not. If not for Crosby being around, Ovechkin would have had even more hype. Russian bear has to take this.

I'd easily put in no order Malkin, Ovechkin, Bure, Fedorov, Cherepanov (rip) above Michkov at this point. Most of them won something gold if I am not mistaken too.