Soyuz said:
Radulov spent most of the 2003-04 season with THK Tver in the High League. Malkin won Russia's Rookie of the Year honors and played in the Super League for one of the strongest teams. Ovechkin held a leading role on one of strongest Super League clubs. You should check out the info on RussianProspects.com - good stuff on these top guys.
Agreed that TVER was in the 2nd best Russian League the "Upper" or "High" League according to how you translate it.......BUT this is still a Mens league not a Jr. or development league as with RUS 3 consisting of the actual farm teams of juniors for their parent Superleague squads...so DYNAMO 2 actually is in the RUS 3 level farm team of Dynamo 1 (the SuperLeague team) --but Radulov did not play for that farm team but rather for TVER in the Upper League (must have been a "loaner"from Dynamo) .........so he did play against older MEN and one must also remember that
Kovalchuk was also drafted after a season not in the SuperLeague but also in the Upper League ............so all in all I think young Radulov's stats were in fact impressive enough ALONG with his great performances in 2 U-18's in Feb and April to justify his rank as the 3rd best forward in Russia (well,at least IMO,in Redline's opinion,and in Russianprospects.com's opinion--as for Central Scouting--how they could have shoved Viktor Alexandrov ahead of Radulov and actually dropped Radulov a few spots from mid-term in the overall euro rankings,is beyond me--especially after Radulov shined so well this spring)...Radulov should have risen in Central Scouting's rankings ,not dropped a bit...but then again Central Scouting GOOFED in 2000 when they put Yakubov and Vorobiev ahead of Frolov (who many readers of this site will rember I was championing as a must pick for 1 of the two picks the Hawks had at 9&10 that year)........I see however that Tukonen rose on Central's final ranking from #11 at mid-term to #5 euro---and Tukonen's excellent showing in the 2 U-18's in Feb and April certainly justified such a rise --so i think they got that right,BUT IMO Radulov also should have moved UP.......Unlike Redline Central did not move Olesz down --he stayed at #3 euro skater on their list ....
My own view agrees more with Redline ----I just have some misgivings about Olesz' ultimate scoring potential ........and i certainly don't see Viktor Alexandrov as high as Central has him.....I don't think he's a top ten overall even......
This is my own ranking overall on the forwards:
1.Ovechkin (consensus)
2. Malkin (consensus)
3.Radulov
4.Tukonen (I think there is a consensus he should be 4 or 5)
5. Olesz
6.Picard
7.Ladd
But hey --that's just my opinion......add in D-men Barker and Smid and Velabik and that should be the top ten barring a goalie cracking in somewhere (Montoya or Schwarz).....How they ultimately all place in the top 10-11 is anyone's guess from #3 onward....