Russian Prospects: who’s hot, who’s not

Alessandro Seren Rosso

2010-10-20

Kuznetsov

 

After more than a month of KHL play it's easy to figure out who's hot and who's not among prospects.

 

Kirill Petrov is definitely the hottest KHL prospect right now, and maybe even in the entire league. After his move from Ak Bars Kazan to Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk he not only started playing some quality minutes, but he started producing. So far he scored eight points in as many games, but what's more important is that his arrival in the lineup sparked the team, which is now the ninth seed in the standings after being promoted from the Russian High League. This is surely a great achievement and Petrov and his powerplay skills have much to do with it. Petrov is definitely progressing, getting the most ice time he ever got in his career and this year will be much better for the Isles prospect’s development.

 

Washington prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov also is making progress. After missing a week due to a shoulder injury, Kuznetsov had a hard time in his first game, but then started scoring again. To tell the truth his problems in the first game were probably due to the change of coaches. Traktor started the season rather badly and they decided to fire their head coach and hire Evgeny Belousov, who won multiple Russian championship titles with Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Avangard Omsk. Belousov most likely wanted to debut with a win and thus played with three lines only, benching Kuznetsov's unit for almost the whole game. But then Belousov started rolling four lines again and Kuznetsov repaid his trust scoring two points, one goal and one assist, in the next two games. Kuznetsov is going to play less under the new coach, but Belousov is a great coach and thus he is the ideal mentor for Kuznetsov, who plays on a line with Flyers' prospect Andrei Popov. Kuznetsov has now five points (two goals and three assists) under his belt.

 

On the other hand some players didn't do too well recently, and thus fit the "not" category.

 

Dmitry Orlov, another Cap’s prospect, is surely a player which deserves to be there. Metallurg Novokuznetsk is on a five-game losing streak and Orlov isn't doing any better. He has been demoted down to the third line (he started the season playing on the first) and got only one point in the latest five games. His team needs to shake things up and he needs it too. Adding some accuracy to his strong shot from the point wouldn't hurt, right now he has a shooting percentage of only .038, scoring only one goal.

 

Orlov's team mate Maxim Kitsyn isn't having a good time as well. After getting an assist in his first KHL game of the season (he was suffering from an elbow injury, had to undergo a surgery) he failed to produce in the next games. He definitely needs to get some KHL scoring as last year he had two points only and this year he picked up one assist in four games.

 

Leave A Comment

Starting Goalies

TD Garden | Loading local time...
Little Caesars Arena | Loading local time...
Bridgestone Arena | Loading local time...
UBS Arena | Loading local time...
Crypto.com Arena | Loading local time...

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
CHARLE-EDOUARD D'ASTOUS T.B
VIKTOR ARVIDSSON DET
BERKLY CATTON SEA
EMMITT FINNIE DET
JOEL FARABEE CGY

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
CONNOR HELLEBUYCK N.J
JACOB FOWLER MTL
STUART SKINNER WPG
DEVIN COOLEY CGY
TRISTAN JARRY EDM

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency MTL Players
21.9 ALEXANDRE TEXIER PHILLIP DANAULT ZACHARY BOLDUC
20.3 JURAJ SLAFKOVSKY ALEX NEWHOOK COLE CAUFIELD
16.7 CHRIS KREIDER JAKE EVANS JOSH ANDERSON

DobberHockey Podcasts

Keeping Karlsson: Down Across the Helle-ware

On this episode of the Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast, Elan and Brian dissect the implications of the Connor Hellebuyck trade, injury returns in Carolina and Washington, hot streaks in Philadelphia and Seattle, crease contenders in Calgary and San Jose, a must-add in Tampa Bay and a sell-high in Colorado for your fantasy hockey league.

Fantasy Hockey Life: Ep 506 Prospects with Plenty to Prove II

Victor and Jesse return to talk about more fantasy hockey prospects in critical seasons. Covered are David Reinbacher, Cayden Lindstrom, Dalibor Dvorsky, Bradly Nadeau, Ilya Protas, Charlie Stramel, Otto Stenberg, Emil Hemming, Trey Augustine, Sebastian Cossa, Jacob Fowler, Easton Cowan, Matthew Wood, Gabe Perreault, and Victor Eklund. Thanks to Mason Black @NHLRankKing for his polls. […]

FIND US ON FACEBOOK