Prospect Info: Player Discussion: Nikita Soshnikov

[Bullseye]

Scouting reporters have him projected to be better than Yakupov.


Source: IAmBobo

so his peak is 32 pts in the NHL in 3 years

 

[cska78]

Would Burmistrov be a good comparison?

Burmistrov doesn't have the character, that I think this guy does.

 

[Gorbo]

Handles the puck like Tim Connolly.

Youtube Tim Connolly. Not Leafs Tim Connolly.

 

[mcleex]

Great now were gonna get the 6th overall pick instead of 4th

 

[Warden of the North]

Great now were gonna get the 6th overall pick instead of 4th

I fail to see the connection here

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Doesen't look to have the greatest of hands, but he does go to the net and is only 21. We will see how this pans out. Regardless, there is nothing to lose here.

 

[Budsfan]

Toronto Maple Leafs sign Nikita Soshnikov to 3-year Entry-Level Deal

http://mapleleafshotstove.com/2015/...-nikita-soshnikov-to-3-year-entry-level-deal/

The Maple Leafs have taken a flyer on undrafted 21-year-old Russian winger Nikita Shoshnikov.

Shoshnikov played his major junior hockey in the Molodezhnaya Hokkeinaya Liga (MHL). In his final season in the MHL, he finished second in the League in goals with 38 in 59 games and sixth in points with 72.

Shoshnikov entered the KHL for Atlant as a 20-year-old in 2013-14 and finished third in scoring among rookies.

His 34 points this past season were good enough for fourth in scoring among KHL players 24 and under. Shoshnikov’s season ended in February after his Atlant team just missed the playoffs with a ninth place finish in the KHL’s Western Conference. Shoshnikov finished tied for second in goals on the team with 14 in 57 games.

 

[headwire]

After this rotten group of players is torn down, someone has to suit to up to play the games next year.

 

[Maplebeasts]

The last Hockey New - Future watch edition has the Leafs prospect pool as #29 out of 30.

So its nice to see Shanahan who inherited one of the leagues weakest prospect pools go out and sign a player like Soshnikov in an effort to supplement and improve the Leafs system outside of just the entry draft.

A draft rebuild is all about tossing as much young talent against the wall and seeing what sticks.

The Hockey News are ****ing bull****. There's no way we are a bottom two prospect pool.

 

[Mess]

The Hockey News are ****ing bull****. There's no way we are a bottom two prospect pool.

The Hockey News is based on a blended opinion of 14 currently employed NHL amateur scouts.

The same guys that are scouting for NHL teams.

Its similar concept to how Bob McKenzie does his draft rankings by polling NHL scouts.

Signing a young player like this only helps strengthen the system.

 

[Maplebeasts]

The Hockey News is based on a blended opinion of 14 currently employed NHL amateur scouts.

The same guys that are scouting for NHL teams.

Its similar concept to how Bob McKenzie does his draft rankings by polling NHL scouts.

Signing a young player like this only helps strengthen the system.

Well then clearly anti Leafs bias is a thing outside of the main boards as well. In all seriousness though, how is our prospect pool 29th? We have Nylander, a lot of good B prospects like Brown, Leivo, Johnson, Percy, and our goaltending depth is improving with Bibeau's solid season so far in the AHL, Gibson's good year, and Spark's dminance in the ECHL. Teams like the Rangers, Devils, Blues, Abs, Hurricanes, Oilers, and Wild easily have worse pools than ours.

 

[Mess]

Well then clearly anti Leafs bias is a thing outside of the main boards as well. In all seriousness though, how is our prospect pool 29th? We have Nylander, a lot of good B prospects like Brown, Leivo, Johnson, Percy, and our goaltending depth is improving with Bibeau's solid season so far in the AHL, Gibson's good year, and Spark's dminance in the ECHL. Teams like the Rangers, Devils, Blues, Abs, Hurricanes, Oilers, and Wild easily have worse pools than ours.

FWIW: Morrison disputed it as well but Shanny claimed too many safe type selections resulting in only bottom pairing level prospects in the prospect pool and few highly skilled guys projected as top 6 or top 4 capable.

Lets hope Soshnikov is a success story to help supplement that and surprises and we get a Nik Kulemin type of player as that is the comparable provided earlier in the thread.

 

[Maplebeasts]

FWIW: Morrison disputed it as well but Shanny claimed too many safe type selections resulting in only bottom pairing level prospects in the prospect pool and few highly skilled guys projected as top 6 or top 4 capable.

Lets hope Soshnikov is a success story to help supplement that and surprises and we get a Nik Kulemin type of player as that is the comparable provided earlier in the thread.

Ok I understand this but I'm not seeing how the teams I listed in the post you quoted have better prospect pools than us.

 

[Mess]

Ok I understand this but I'm not seeing how the teams I listed in the post you quoted have better prospect pools than us.

The 2015 Hockey News comes out soon in April so maybe they will move the Leafs up but they're still likely to be in the bottom 1/3 of the league so signings like this only helps put more chips in the pot.

 

[Rare Jewel]

Yea, That same Hockey news who has Detroit with 6 prospects in their top 75(Most of anyone other than WPG) but only say they have the 9th best prospect pool.

Alright then...

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

Seriously though people... look up his name and his stats and if you see that he's young and that he's been hardened by the insane KHL training camps, you might not just type stupid comments.

 

[Semantics]

The Hockey News is based on a blended opinion of 14 currently employed NHL amateur scouts.

The same guys that are scouting for NHL teams.

Its similar concept to how Bob McKenzie does his draft rankings by polling NHL scouts.

Doesn't matter if it's based on real scouts, it's still largely a popularity contest. Those scouts don't sit down and rigorously analyze every team's prospects and how they're progressing for days and days just to weigh in for THN. Rather, they probably spend about 10 minutes skimming lists of each team's prospects, then, based on what they remember from past drafts form an overall impression (remember, they're currently focusing on 2016). Plus, the NA scouts are going to know very little about European players and vice versa.

And, just like fans, they probably pay a lot more attention to the high picks like Biggs than the long shots like Loov that have been progressing really well. And scouts have the same cognitive biases as fans as well. I guarantee you that even if Detroit's prospect pool was complete garbage they'd probably still have them in the top 10 just because of their track record. Anybody in Detroit's system automatically becomes overrated, while the opposite is true of Leafs picks.

Finally, to add some concrete evidence to my point, the Leafs have never been very high in THN rankings, yet somehow they seem to have produced better than average results over the past 10 years given the picks they've had available. By definition that means the Leafs scouts know better than the majority of the scouts who ranked them in this poll. Hence, the poll is useless.

 

[glg51*]

Just what we need. Another undersized skilled forward.... Gj nonuts

 

[91Stammer*]

The thing I liked most in that video was how quickly he goes back to back check the player after the shift in offensive zone. This is the type we are looking to build and embrace in our young group, hopefully this guy will have some impact on likes of Nylander, Leipsic etc(I wouldn't say Brown because he is always motivated).

 

[Banic]

Just what we need. Another undersized skilled forward.... Gj nonuts

Really?? Your going to complain about a skilled young prospect? This fan base...

 

[samyy]

Really?? Your going to complain about a skilled young prospect? This fan base...

The only stats that matter are hits per 60, gritfor% and +/-

 

[Drew311]

He needs to get that bush league stick tapping out of his game before he get to Toronto.

 

[glg51*]

Really?? Your going to complain about a skilled young prospect? This fan base...

Oh sorry, apparently the Leafs signed a guy nobody has ever heard of before today and I should be happy? Especially when his style of play is 100% redundant on a team full of cream puffs.

 

[7even]

Oh sorry, apparently the Leafs signed a guy nobody has ever heard of before today and I should be happy? Especially when his style of play is 100% redundant on a team full of cream puffs.

Leafs sign a prospect for free.

OH THE HUMANITY

 

[BigBlu]

Using that Clarkson cap space!!

We can probably sign about 35 more of these guys!!