Breaking from the Matt tradition of keeping everything on Twitter, Nick is bringing the Q&A to Substack. It’s mainly so I don’t have to worry about character limits and go more in-depth. I know it might be jarring for the first few times to switch to Substack for the monthly Q&A, but this way I don’t have to worry about character limits and don’t have to give the guy money to expand those limits. This month’s interest has been on who makes the jump and other Prospect Showcase-related questions so let’s dive in.
1.
Well, if it was so obvious, I was really hoping we would all get a nice big indication when they posted the Training Camp roster! In any case, I had seriously thought about making a big post about who has the best chances and the merits for selecting either of them, but let’s just rattle these off quickly.
Bradly Nadeau - The best shooter of the group who fits on the 2LW spot and desperately needs a player with skill.
Felix Unger Sorum - The best playmaker of the group. Makes hard plays look routine.
Jackson Blake - The best mix of the two. Probably has the best hands out of the group.
Scott Morrow gets a shoutout for being the prospect that gets the call-up first on defense. Also shoutout Gleb (Gleb!) for having one hell of a performance in the Prospect Showcase. He definitely helped his case but as we’ve seen with Khazheyev, the transition from MHL to NA is a tough one.
2.
Gleb’s ceiling is a top 6 playmaking sniper. That’s at the very top end, with his point cap being at around 60-70. As we saw this past weekend, the guy just understands how to play offense. His positioning was stellar and his shot was LETHAL.
Also, as a fun little joke, anytime he scores at the NHL/AHL level, can we all just spam the comments or quotes with either the “Gleb!” image or just posting “Gleb!” I think it would be a really fun thing to do. (Shoutout to the original creator Chris)
3.
Let me give two answers here.
Vladimir Grudinin - Such an interesting player. Grudinin has all-around skill, he runs a power play and plays on the top penalty kill. In his second game back from injury, he was the only Severstal player to see over 20 minutes of ice time. It’s obvious the coach trusts him and Grudinin has seen immense growth because of it.
Justin Poirier - Poirier gets a lot of love from the Canadian fans because of how much they’ve seen him play and he deserves all of it. The way Poirier plays for his size is such a juxtaposition that I haven’t seen before. Combine that with his shot, which is insanely good, he deserves more love.
Shoutout to Roman Shokhrin and Timur Kol as well.
4.
Leading scorer for Chicago is probably whatever forward signed to an NHL contract gets sent down.
Sticking to my guns that Nadeau makes the roster out of camp and sticks. If that happens, he probably has a comparable season to Svech’s rookie season.
5.
This is an amazing question that I honestly didn’t expect to answer. My answer will continue to be Bradly Nadeau. I love Unger Sorum, but Nadeau didn’t sniff the penalty kill at Maine and once he touches the prospect showcase he’s on the top unit that had incredible success. Both Unger Sorum and Blake get merit here, along with Morrow.
6.
SBA, or El Hijo del Brind’Amour, is under an AHL contract with Charlotte and I doubt that Carolina will give him a two-way deal to steal him.
UPDATE: Started writing this at 11:24 PM EST on Tuesday, September 17th. By 4:40 PM EST on Tuesday, September 17th, it was outdated. I guess I was very wrong and Skyler will play with the Wolves this year.
7.
I was really shocked to see FUS be a center this past weekend and was honestly more shocked to see him play so well in that role. He always had the defensive responsibility needed to play there but he had never played there for Leksands in the SHL so color me shocked. I don’t think Unger Sorum sticks at center at the NHL level but it’s encouraging to see his results when placed there. Always helpful to see a player do good at two positions rather than one.
8.
I know I’m the Prospect guy but I still like the question. Plus the second half lets me give a truly definitive answer to a question I get asked a lot. My line predictions:
Line 1: Svech-Aho-Necas
Line 2: Nadeau-Kotkaniemi-Jarvis
Line 3: Martinook-Staal-Roslovic
Line 4: Carrier-Drury-Jost/Lemieux/Robinson
Pair 1: Slavin-Burns
Pair 2: Orlov-Chatfield
Pair 3: Gostisbehere-Walker
Now, Jarvis on line 2 is to insulate Nadeau. Kotkaniemi being more defensive-focused lets Jarvis and Nadeau go do what they do best (see stats of Svech-KK-Necas from last season). Don’t want to break up the Orlov-Chatfield pairing.
Now, the answer to the second part is yes. The Canes are lacking one more top 6 dynamic player and I believe they left it open for one of Blake, Nadeau, and Unger Sorum to break in. I have been a Nadeau truther for a while now but I’m not going to be upset by any of them sticking.
Final Note - I would put so much unbelievable caution on thinking Nikishin steps into the NHL this season. By the time his season ends and he can eventually come to North America, it will be way too deep into playoff time. SKA is such a good team that they will go far in the Gagarin Cup. Plus, Nikishin is going to play a lot of the KHL season injured, so it’s more worthwhile to let the big guy rest in the off-season and get fully healthy so he plays in the full 82 in 2025/26. Also, as I have come to see, visas take an incredibly long time to get done. So while I’m not saying it’s completely definitive that Nikishin isn’t playing this year, I would say it’s highly unlikely.
Thank you all for asking questions! Going forward, I’ll ask for questions on the third Wednesday of the month and have these out on the following Saturday. So expect every third Saturday of the month to have answers to any questions you may have.