Rabid Ranger
2 is better than one
This quote is the first legitimate possible reason that I've seen so far for people believing that Chicago will not take Cherepanov this year. If the organization has a bias against Russian players, then obviously that can affect who the team picks. However, like drafting for positional need, being biased against players from a certain nation that has historically had a lot of success in the sport is very foolish.
I would generally agree with you, but IMO there have been more than the usual number of issues with Russian players. I wouldn't be surprised if a fair amount of teams harbor some serious reservations about taking a Russian player in the top half of the first round, even if he is as skilled as Cherepanov. I guess the bottomline to me is if a team looks at Kane vs Cherepanov, and there isn't a big discrepancy is skill, with the former getting the edge in intangibles and the latter the edge in size, then who would a team go with? I would think Kane would get the nod.