15 Thoughts: November 9th Edition

Big week for Russians

Lots of shifting schedules due to this month having 5 Saturdays means this post, normally scheduled for the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, moves to Saturday. Let’s talk about some things I’ve seen while watching all the Canes Prospects around the globe. (Special announcement at the end of the article!)

1. Andrei Krutov is having a nice run of games. After being sent back down to Chaika in the MHL and having a decent stretch of games, he was called back up to Torpedo-Gorky. In the 4 games since he’s been back, Krutov has 3 goals and 1 assist for 4 points. I’ve been impressed with his shot and especially his positioning in the offensive zone. This clip being my favorite.

Receives a pass in the slot and either has it taken off his stick before the shot or tries to make the pass and it misses. It doesn’t matter for Krutov, who smartly and quickly reloads and sneaks into the soft spot of the penalty kill. He gets the pass and his release is quick and accurate. Love seeing that.

2. Ruslan Khazheyev looked shaky in his 1 ECHL start, giving up 3 goals on 15 shots. In his 2 AHL starts, he’s gone 1-1 while having a .899% save percentage and a 2.5 GAA. The eye test in his most recent game against the Rockford Ice Hogs showed me that Khazheyev was making multiple key saves to keep the Wolves in the lead and, eventually, give them the win. He was staying square to shots, fighting through traffic and genuinely looked like a really solid goaltender. Which is very impressive seeing as that was his 3rd game of North American hockey.

3. A return to somewhat normal is expected from Nikita Artamonov, as it’s really, really hard to sustain a shooting percentage above 30%. He’s still looking incredible for Torpedo, averaging almost a PPG while “cooling off” and is still on pace to break the U20 scoring record. Just might not have another 9 game point streak in him for a while (I’d love to be wrong).

4. Fyodor “Uncle” Avramov is a player that intrigues me so much. Players that are 6’3 normally don’t skate as well as him while also having a lethal release. I’m hoping Sochi keeps him at the MHL level unless they play him in a role where he gets more than 5 minutes a night at the KHL level.

5. Since I wrote about why I believe the Nikishin-TDA pairing doesn’t work, the pairing has showed some signs of growth. Mainly, Nikishin is learning that TDA doesn’t backcheck unless he has too, which has forced him to start hedging back on D earlier than normal. He does still have the occasional “I’m pinching so hard I’m going to be behind the net when the puck leaves the zone” but it’s getting better. Still not entirely happen with him being stuck on the boards for power plays and SKA aren’t either, as their power play has stagnated heavily since the two have been together on one unit.

6. Underrated player of the week: Ryan Suzuki. He’s continuing the success he had late in the season with Springfield and looks really solid for the Wolves. Currently tied for first for points with Chicago and he looks the part.

7. Who is Suzuki tied with for the lead in points? That would be none other than Scott Morrow! Offensively, Morrow has looked good. The one gripe I have with his game so far is on the power play, when he stares down his pass. Other than that, he’s fine. Not the biggest fan of the -4 he has, but there was always going to be growing pains. He also leads the team in penalty minutes, which is also a cause for concern but again, growing pains.

8. While Bradly Nadeau doesn’t have the point production some might expect from him so far with the Wolves, I’m extremely impressed with both his growth off the puck and his defensive game. Specifically, he’s become a penalty killer for the Wolves and he looks good out there. Somebody must’ve given him something to work on and with that kid’s work ethic, he’s going to excel.

9. Let’s tackle what the elephant in the room was this past weekend, Gleb Trikozov. The timing of his KHL rights being traded and then being healthy scratched for the Wolves was rather insane, but he still traveled with the team and I haven’t seen anything from any Russian journalists to suggest that he’s going back. (Side note: Hilarious that a person who paywalled KHL content anyone can access blocked me because my information was slightly late and I didn’t credit him.)

10. Justin Poirier is such a joy to watch. The reigning QMJHL player of the week after a 6 goal, 2 assist outburst in 2 games is scrappy in board battles, skates pretty well (even if his stride is a little funky) and has an NHL release already. 15 points in his last 4 games is also rather insane.

11. Back to Russia, Timur Kol averaging almost 28 minutes a night over his last 5 games is a little terrifying, but he’s putting up decent results in these minutes. I would think he takes a spot on SKA’s blueline going into next year.

12. Speaking of SKA next year, like it’s any secret, Russian media is reporting Alexander Nikishin is likely to head over to North America. The only reason why I mention this is because this marks one of the first times they outright mention Nikishin might/will leave. Links to those articles: Sport Express and MatchTV

13. Very cool to see Roman Shokhrin get a “promotion” from Loko-76 of the MHL Silver Division to Loko of the MHL Gold Division and continue to produce. Playing in 4 games so far, Shokhrin has 5 assists while averaging around 21 minutes a night. (11/7 Update: 3 point performance, all primary assists or goals)

14. Continuing on from my Velmakin rant from the Top 5 Prospects of the Month article, he hasn’t played in a game in Minsk last 4 games. Minsk’s normal starting goalie, Andrei Kareyev, is back practicing with the team. Got a bad feeling Velmakin might not see a game for a while unless something changes, which stinks because his stats look really promising. (11/7 Update: He won his first KHL game! 16/18 saves in regulation, 4/6 in the shootout.)

15. Charles-Alexis Legault is a beast. One thing that I really never saw from him during his days at Quinnipiac was his ability and willingness to join and lead the rush. He’s been gathering up quite a few clean zone exits and converts a lot of those into a rush chance for the Wolves. If he continues to develop those good offensive traits and continues to just absolutely body opponents, he’s got a bright NHL future down the line.

16. I’m going to use the last Thought here to quickly cover the 3 NCAA guys

• Lucas Mercuri continues to be a force. He’s a perfect net front presence for UMass and has had a nice start to his senior season, with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points in 8 games while playing mostly on the 2nd and 3rd line. He’s also been really solid in the dot, winning around 56% of his faceoffs.

• Jayden Perron has had a kind of weird start to his season with UND. Point wise, he’s got 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points in 7 games, which would have him on pace to beat his scoring from last year. He had a really nice game, 2 assists against a very talented Boston University team. The “weirdness” comes from his line, which has struggled defensively. To be fair, the line includes Perron (sophomore), Sacha Boisvert (true freshman) and Dylan James (junior) so I don’t think this line is expected to be stout defensively.

• Michael Emerson has 1 goal in 7 games with Merrimack, who is struggling. He’s only had 2 shots on goal all year, which is certainly shocking. Emerson has been learning to play Center as he’s been asked to be one by Merrimack and he’s been ok in the dot.

Thank you all for reading! The special announcement is that I managed to drag the one and only Matt Somma out of Canes Prospects retirement! I don’t really want to call it a podcast but, it’s probably a podcast. “Developing Hurricanes” will be once a month at the end of every month (or biweekly, maybe) and it’ll be Matt and I (Nick) talking about everything Canes Prospects and anything else we want to talk about. The first episode will drop on November 30th so we hope that you enjoy that!