16 Thoughts: A Filler Week

Playoffs in full swing everywhere

Welcome back to 16 Thoughts, a series a kin to Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts but cut in half due to only talking about Carolina Hurricanes prospects. The title being “A filler week” basically means nothing of real substance will be here, proven by there only being 14 Thoughts. Just some housekeeping things and some stuff I’ve seen from prospects.

1. I plan on having a full Chicago Wolves season breakdown from a prospect perspective done by Saturday. It’ll be close, but it should get done.

2. News broke Tuesday that Amir Miftakhov, a goalie from Ak Bars Kazan, is going to come to North America and sign with the Hurricanes. This caught me off guard, but I really like this move.

DobberProspects

3. Miftakhov was drafted back in 2020 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and already played in the AHL and ECHL. The AHL numbers look somewhat similar to what Ruslan Khazheyev posted in his rookie season, while Miftakhov looked better in the ECHL.

4. In the three seasons since being back in the KHL, he’s had two really solid seasons while being injured in the middle.

5. He’s 25-years old and apparently a very good friend of noted Hurricane Andrei Svechnikov. Overall, I like the move. For Miftakhov, he gets to spend some extra time with his buddy and goes into a good situation, where he has a legit chance at getting an NHL game or two during the season. For the Canes, they fill a big need in goalie depth.

6. I jokingly said that the Wolves would look more Russian next year, but with Miftakhov coming over, Gleb getting healthy, another season of Khazheyev, and maybe one or two other guys, it looks like I might be correct.

7. I truly believe the whole “Nikishin not signed” thing was blown out of proportion by his Russian agent. Nothing came of it, except some very fun conversations with people that were concerned for some reason, and he’s fully signed. Just waiting for his NHL debut now.

8. For Chicago, it does suck that they couldn’t get the job done in the first round, but there were a ton of positives to take away from it. I expand upon those positives in the piece that’ll come out Saturday, but it was a good season. Lots to look forward to from them.

9. Looking ahead for the Wolves, they already have their right side of the defense locked down in Charles-Alexis Legault, Joel Nystrom, and Dominik Badinka. In my opinion, that’s a really fun and pretty solid 3 defenders.

10. Other than that defensively, the only other defenders signed through next season are Aleksi Heimosalmi and Bryce Montgomery. I would imagine Montgomery would be a perfect 1st pairing RHD for the Greensboro Gargoyles.

11. Forward wise, they have Bradly Nadeau, Josiah Slavin, Justin Robidas, Gleb Trikozov, and Felix Unger Sorum signed for next year. I wouldn’t count on Nadeau starting next season in Chicago but I’d imagine the rest will be big players for the Wolves. Lots of forward turnover but I’d look for the Wolves to look at more veteran forwards with spots opening up.

12. Timur Kol has been flat out great for SKA-1946 in the playoffs. He gets 20+ minutes a night routinely and almost all of those minutes come on his off side. I think he starts next season on the KHL roster depending on who SKA brings in (they’re already going to get Trevor Murphy, the leading scoring defenseman from last season).

13. Nikita Artamonov has continued his good year with Torpedo-Gorky in the VHL. What a year the kid has had as he’s quickly moved into the Top 5 Canes Prospects (partially helped by both Jackson Blake and Alexander Nikishin graduating).

14. Speaking of Jackson Blake, he’s looked really solid in the playoffs. His game from the regular season is translating nicely into the tougher games. He’s also getting the Jarvis “PLEASE KEEP YOUR HEAD UP AT ALL TIMES” treatment this playoffs with these hits he’s taking.