16 Thoughts: Down the Stretch

Whole lot of looking ahead in here

Welcome back to 16 Thoughts, a series somewhat like Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts but cut in half due to only talking about Carolina Hurricanes prospects.

It’s been a rather weird season. Not covering much of Alexander Nikishin is probably the biggest part of it, seeing as he’s been the lead guy for so long and I normally had something every single day. It also helped that Nikita Artamonov (20) was having one of the best U20 KHL seasons of all time, among other guys that had a really good season. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been happening again this season, but this season has felt somewhat incomplete to me.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have some guys having great seasons (ahem, Chicago Wolves top 3 scorers). This season has just been absolutely ravaged by injuries. Whether that be to Alexander Siryatsky (19), Semyon Frolov (19), Kurban Limatov (19), Justin Poirier (19) or Roman Bausov (18), it’s just been an unfortunate season for a lot of prospects. It feels more impactful for these guys because Siryatsky was on his way to becoming a consistent everyday KHL defenseman (more on that later), Frolov was carving out a real role with his MHL team and was putting up great stats, and Poirier was well on his way to being one of the better freshman in all of college hockey (again, more on that later).

With that said, let’s get to thinking.

1. Starting with a potential position change, Andrei Krutov (19) has been playing at center for the past few games with Amur in the KHL. I was somewhat confused by this because I had never remembered him ever playing center in the time that I’ve covered him and that’s because, well, he hasn’t played center since he played youth hockey. But it’s not the worst idea, as one of Krutov’s greatest skills is his hands, which is an important part of taking faceoffs. So far, he’s played 6ish games at center and has won 34.1% of his faceoffs. That looks bad, flat out. BUT, he has 3 games taking under 10 faceoffs. When he takes more than 10 faceoffs, he’s gone 33%, 10%, and 57%. It’s still not great, but seeing as he’s never played center at the professional level, it’s not the worst it could be. Since he’s still really young, I honestly hope Torpedo continues using him in the middle from time to time to see if it develops any further.

2. Alexander Siryatsky was getting a great run pre injury and since coming back, it’s been up and down. He got his season high in ice time in February, with 18:47 against Severstal. But then he’s seen a few scratches as well as sub 10 minute games. He’s been ok since coming back, had some great moments and then some not great moments. We’ll talk contracts later on, but he’s one player I’d prefer to see stay in Russia for another year or two.

UPDATE: He got a new career high in TOI with 21:33.

3. I’m gutted for Roman Bausov. Faught hard to come back, looked really good in the 18 games he played, and then he gets hurt again (for clarity, I went back and watched the last game he played. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and he finished out the game). Just absolutely sucks for him and I hope he gets healthy soon.

4. Alright, let me give the people some fun information. Here’s the list of Russian prospects that have expiring contracts as of May 31st, 2026:

• Alexander Siryatsky

• Alexander Pelevin

• Timur Mukhanov

• Alexander Rykov

• Fyodor Avramov

• Timur Kol

• Alexander Perevalov

• Yegor Velmakin

5. Out of those players, I think you’ll see at LEAST 2 of them head to North America after their seasons are over. I think Siryatsky would be better served staying with Metallurg Magnitgorsk for at least 1 or 2 more seasons. I think the sun has set on Alexander Pelevin (21), who will be an effective KHL/VHL defenseman in his career. Timur Mukhanov (20) and Alexander Perevalov (22) intrigue me in different ways. Perevalov has a heavy shot and has been a really solid netfront power play presence, which is cool for a sub 6 foot guy. Mukhanov is an undersized winger (roll your eyes, whatever) who’s played in 170 KHL games before turning 21. There is skill there, combined with a good skater. At the end of the day, I doubt they actually sign him.

6. That brings us to Alexander Rykov (20), Fyodor Avramov (20), Timur Kol (19), and Yegor Velmakin (22). 3 of these guys have already been in North America with the Canes at a development camp, with 2 of those being last year (Rykov and Avramov).

7. What does that mean?

8. Moving contract talk to Europe, here are the guys the Canes have until June 1st to sign:

• Nils Juntorp

• Simon Forsmark

• Jakub Vondras

With Simon Forsmark signing a 3 year extension with Timra and Nils Juntorp still playing 3rd tier Swedish hockey, I don’t think either will get signed, so salute to both of those guys for their service while Canes Prospects🫡.

9. College wise? Well, there’s no deadline on any of those guys but I guess there’s no harm in talking about it. I felt pretty good about Charlie Cerrato’s (20) chances of earning a pro contract after Penn State’s season, but the injury changed my thinking on it. If Penn State has a deep run, goes to a Frozen Four, or wins the National Championship, I think there’s still a chance. But I also wouldn’t be entirely shocked if he goes back to school for another season.

10. Justin Poirier, mentioned above, was one of the best freshman in college hockey pre injury. He’s better served heading back to school, whether that be with Maine or somewhere else (you never know in the day of NIL).

11. Jayden Perron (21) is a weird one. I’ll explain what I’ve seen in a second, but here’s an updated microstats chart from Mitchell Brown (who does spectacular work with these):

This basically sums up my thinking with Perron, he’s a great playmaker from the perimeter who struggles with contact, which shouldn’t be a huge shock since 5’9 and 174 pounds. He doesn’t really drive play but does have success in transition. I’d imagine he heads back to Michigan for his senior year and wouldn’t be shocked if it ends up like Lucas Mercuri.

13. Lastly, Michael Emerson (22). He’s got another year and I’d imagine he uses it.

14. The last thought, brought to you by the 2026 NHL Draft and the 4 picks the Hurricanes currently have, Ivan Ryabkin (18) is electric. He’s straight up dominating the QMJHL, something which is almost expected of him. He’s physically stronger than 90% of the competition and is just flat out better than a large majority of players too. Whether it be playmaking or his shot, he’s just better. If there is one player I’m going to watch real closely for the playoffs, it’s Ivan. His already borderline psychotic physicality is going to get ramped up to 11.