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. You might think to yourself, “How in the world can someone talk about hockey at the end of August?” My answer is that the entirety of Russia and most of Sweden are gearing up for the start of their season, which causes me to pay much more attention to my phone than I had in the past few weeks. With that, let’s get into the thoughts.
1. Alexander Perevalov has had the weirdest development since being drafted. He went from the MHL Loko system to Kunlun (now the Shanghai Dragons), returned to Loko, went to both Molot Perm and HK Sochi in the same year and dealt with injuries, and then went to Omskie Krylia, where he didn’t see success. But then, Metallurg Novokuznetsk. A reinvention of sorts. He found the game that got him drafted and has channeled that for half a season. He was a completely different player comparatively in just a few weeks.
2. The reason I bring that up, besides the fact that it’s a prospect making a drastic return to form, is because he’s continuing that form into the preseason. He’s leading Metallurg Novokuznetsk in points in the preseason and he looks flat out good. He’s being used as a top line RW (yeah, he was in my LW rankings, that’s where he was last year) and he’s been great. He’s scoring at will and seems to have found success as a net front/bumper presence on the power play. I really, really hope he has a full, healthy season this year. (update: he looked good in the first game of the year)
3. Speaking of Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Nikita Guslistov has found some early success as center so far. He’s played either 1C or 3C so far and has looked solid. He had one goal (try to include) where he just beats every and makes a great move on a breakaway. If he sees a career resurgence, I’m putting Metallurg Novokuznetsk into the Canes Prospects Hall of Fame (not a real thing).
4. Speaking of Metallurg (different team), Alexander Siryatsky is seeing a nice bump in his role within the Metallurg program. He spent a good amount of time in the KHL preseason and didn’t look out of place. He recently played with Magnitka, the VHL affiliate, where he was the top pairing defenseman as they beat a KHL in Barys. I’d put his role as a tweener, someone who will play top pairing VHL minutes if he’s not at the KHL level. I HIGHLY doubt he plays an MHL game this year.
5. Well, in a scrimmage of KHL vs VHL in the Metallurg system, Siryatsky played with the KHL team. Interesting to see for sure. (update: It looks like he has made the opening day KHL roster, which is great to see!)
6. I thought Roman Shokhrin had a chance to play KHL games this year, and he still might, but he hasn’t played outside the MHL so far. He’s looked good in the MHL but I was hoping for a slight step up in competition.
7. Fyodor Avramov. Just let him play in the VHL consistently please. He deserves consistent playing time, not getting 13th forward/4th line KHL minutes and then getting healthy scratched.
8. A big piece of news was that of friend of the brand Yegor Velmakin leaving Dinamo Minsk, something I had said (both publicly and privately) that I wish would happen. I got my wish and this move is honestly perfect for him. The VHL is better than the Belarus league and, according to Oleg Smirnov on Twitter, he should be in a good spot to get a good amount of playing time for Dynamo St. Petersburg.
9. Astute readers will recognize Dynamo St. Petersburg as the same team that Timur Kol is playing for. Speaking of Kol, he has had an up and down preseason. I’ll need to dive into the game tape a little more (something I thought about making a series out of as a reinvention of the “After Further Review” series) but that’s something for another day.
10. Not much going on in the Spartak system, but Semyon Frolov looked good in the few MHL games he played and Stanislav Yarovoy scored in a VHL game and has played on the top line in the KHL. Don’t know if that’s where he stays, but it’s still good for him.
11. Alexander Rykov has looked good in his 2 preseason games. Top line in both games so far.
12. It’s honestly really weird that I don’t have to track/watch SKA games. It’s been such a staple in my hockey watching over the past 2 years and since they have nobody in that system, I have no reason to watch it.
13. I’m glad I didn’t post this yet (started writing this in late August) because we got the news of Ivan Ryabkin signing his ELC. One of the drafts bigger storylines, he’s part of the first batch to receive his ELC, which shows how much the Hurricanes like the player.
14. I had mentioned it on Twitter and Bluesky but I’d expect Ryabkin to play in the AHL. The Q, respectfully, isn’t the greatest league and while a full year in the USHL isn’t the worst thing, a year learning at the professional level might be the best thing for him.
With this 16 Thoughts coming out, I’m going to take a quick break from writing. I’m not leaving permanently and it’s not that I’ve fallen out of love with it, it’s more that I’m swamped with school and an internship so I don’t have as much time to do this as I want to. With that being said, I’m not going to stop posting on every Canes Prospect related social media. It’s hockey season and Matt can only help so much, so I’ll still be maintaining that. As well, I’ll be back October 4th with the Top 5 prospects for September and will be establishing a schedule akin to what I have done in the past, with one piece coming out every Saturday at 1:30 (subject to slight change). Here’s the current schedule:
1st Saturday: Top 5 Prospects of the Month
2nd Saturday: 16 Thoughts
3rd Saturday: Prospect Mailbag/"After Further Review” (maybe with a new format)/Developing Hurricanes
4th Saturday: 16 Thoughts
Developing Hurricanes will either continue to be a once a month endeavor or *potentially* a biweekly thing. We will find out over the course of the following months but for now, I’m gonna hunker down, focus on school and this internship, and of course, watch all Carolina Hurricanes prospects across the globe. Thank you all for the love and support you show these written pieces, it means a lot. In the meantime, Matt has been doing excellent work and I’d recommend him to all (even if his site layout is a little weird).
Would love to read/hear your predictions of who plays for the Gargoyles. I see they already have several non-Canes on their roster.