Omaha picked his teammate Limatov with the very next pick so likely hoping it is a package deal. I imagine settling at that age in a foreign country would be easier with your friend with you.
There have been some successful Russian players in the USHL over the years - Afanaseyev, Firstov, Guschin, Kuznetsov all went on to be relatively high NHL picks, Merkulov is a good upside guy with the Bruins and of course Svechnikov.
Gridin came over with a fairly lofty reputation last year though and wasn’t terribly amazing though still very young. Chaly could be a late round draft pick this year. A few other guys but Russian presence in the league is down from a high of 16 in the 18-19 season to really only 4 full-time guys last year.
It is interesting to note also that Russians, more than any other nationalities that come to the USHL - often use the USHL as springboard to the CHL and not the NCAA. Feels like it’s about half and half. Feel like most of the Finns, Czechs, Slovaks etc go to the NCAA after their time in the USHL. Although I’m not sure what the policy is right now with the CHL and Russians?
Anyways - real curious to see if the two Russians or some of the big names Czech/Slovaks eventually come over - Adam Nemec, Jan Chovan, Tomas Chrenko, Michal Svrcek are some of the biggest names in their age group and also got drafted this evening.
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