Confirmed with Link: Kuznetzov (50%) for 2025 3rd

[Cardiac Jerks]

He was the 2001 15th overall pick of the Canes. Came to America, was awful in the AHL and went back to Russia. JR never drafted another Russian (for the Canes at least). He did continue to swing and miss at defenseman though, I had that one wrong.

Didn’t he have a great u18 world championship that helped his draft stock? I seem to recall that.

I wouldn’t say he stopped us from drafting Russians, though. Even as the whalers I believe we only drafted one other. I don’t know if there’s any team in league history that avoided drafting one of the most dominant nations for as long as we did.

 

[JoeGarelli]

Did he switch numbers? I thought he was18 against NYR.. Most recent video looks like he is back to 92

 

[Blueline Bomber]

It was TD that said something about not drafting defenseman in the first round. “You can always buy defense”.

Igor was a massive disappointment. Back then you didn’t get fed highlights of players from across the sea to build up false hopes. You imagined your own.

Are you sure? I could have sworn there was something about JR's philosophy about how he avoids drafting defensemen because by the time they reach their "prime", they're up for FA/trade. So he preferred to get defense that way instead of drafting them.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Did he switch numbers? I thought he was18 against NYR.. Most recent video looks like he is back to 92

Drury is #18 and he didn’t play against the rangers.

Are you sure? I could have sworn there was something about JR's philosophy about how he avoids drafting defensemen because by the time they reach their "prime", they're up for FA/trade. So he preferred to get defense that way instead of drafting them.

It was Dundon. That was when he made his other famous quote about preferring to lose a high scoring game than winning a boring, low scoring one.

 

[bleedgreen]

Are you sure? I could have sworn there was something about JR's philosophy about how he avoids drafting defensemen because by the time they reach their "prime", they're up for FA/trade. So he preferred to get defense that way instead of drafting them.

JR also took Tanabe and Tselios. JJ obviously. His thing became about Russians in general because you just didn’t know if they’d come over and you didn’t really know what you had until then. I think he got frustrated with the not knowing or having to wait as with the budget JR usually worked with he needed the cheap labor. He didn’t mind putting underage and underdeveloped workers out there.

He did say what you said about defenseman though, that’s a well remembered quote by you. I had forgotten that. He just wouldn’t follow it all the time obviously? Russians became a thing for sure after that.

So JR didn’t prefer it and Dundon flat out mocked it. Then RF got smacked in the face for doing it right away with Fleury. Then he did it again anyways with Hanifin and then Bean. Hanifin was a good pick though. Was that Provorov’s year? I remember being fine with him too, just as I remember being fine with Tkachuk over Svech.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

2015 was a fairly loaded draft. As for drafting a Dman, Hanifin was a good choice but Provorov and Werenski were strong options that went 7-Chabot went in the first round as well. Except the Bruins being super weird with 3 mid 1st round picks in a row (Zboril) being one of them, it would have been hard to miss on a Dman with a high pick hindsight.

Notable forwards that were drafted in the 1st round after Hanifin include Rantanen, Meier, Barzal, Connor, Boeser, Konecny. And then some very decent talent in there as well with DeBrusk, Zacha, Eriksson Ek.

So, we did fine but we could have done better especially with the 5OA pick

 

[Joe McGrath]

Didn’t he have a great u18 world championship that helped his draft stock? I seem to recall that.

I wouldn’t say he stopped us from drafting Russians, though. Even as the whalers I believe we only drafted one other. I don’t know if there’s any team in league history that avoided drafting one of the most dominant nations for as long as we did.

JR drafted 5 Russians for the Whalers/Canes before Knyazev and the next one was Svech (I think).

So i would very much say he stopped us from drafting Russians since they went over 15 years as an organization not drafting one.

 

[andy500]

I loved Kuznetsov as a player. I'm excited, but we're probably not getting the player I remember.

I was wrong.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

So i would very much say he stopped us from drafting Russians since they went over 15 years as an organization not drafting one.

Yep. He and Francis both. Neither JR, nor Francis was even here when we drafted Svech. How much of that was not having any scouting in Russia? Who knows.

From 2002 - 2013, JR drafted zero Russians in Carolina.
From 2014-2020 as GM of the Penguins, he never drafted a single Russian as far as I can tell.
And in the 3 years he's been with Vancouver, although he's not GM now, they've drafted 1 Russian. 7th rounder Kirill Kudryavtsev, who plays in the OHL.

And in Francis's 4 years as GM in Carolina, he didn't draft a single Russian out of 33 picks. And in his 3 drafts in Seattle, he's drafted 1 Russian. Goalie Semyon Vyazovoi in the 6th round.

Since Dundon took over, the Canes have drafted about 15 Russians in 5 drafts.