He is a rather promising young defenseman whose steady progress has already made him capable of squeezing his way onto most top pairings in the RSL as the #2 purely defensive guy. He is, however, still rough around the edges and would most likely not cut it in the NHL at the present moment. I would expect him to make my list of most ready RSL prospects in some capacity within a season or two.
Being able to crack an RSL lineup on a consistent basis is, in my eyes, quite a fundamental prerequisite to being considered NHL ready. Do you think him NHL ready based on his seventeen games with Phoenix last season?
You must understand that Anisimov was merely a fourth liner at the RSL level for the vast majority of the season. Only towards the end of the regular season as well as the playoffs did he step it up and begin to make more of a contribution to his team. Am I prepared to say that he is NHL ready on account of this last stretch? No, not really. It was a big step in his development, but even then, he was overshadowed a number of fellow NHL prospects on Lokomotiv. He is one of the more promising prospects in Russia, but not quite ready for the NHL yet.
I did not overlook Valentenko on account of him having agreed to come over. In fact, if I were to list another round of honourable mentions, he may very well not have been among them. I would say that Kirill Lyamin, Dmitry Vorobiev, Nikita Nikitin, and a few other unmentioned young defensemen are currently better than him.
Большое спасибо за ответ. Болельщики Рейнджэрс почему-то считают что Анисимов готов играть на первой линии.
-- George.
If he plays at roughly the same level as he did this year, he will remain roughly where he is now. That is, it would require progresss rather than a mere demonstration of consistency in the form of being able to maintain his current level of play from season to season.
That is actually a rather tough question. Kulemin will never be an elite offensive player in the NHL; his strength as well as value will always lie in impressive counterattacking ability on the rush stemming from solid defense. Yet he has the potential to become a first liner in some capacity. Whether he achieves this potential is dependant upon whether he can learn to utilize his teammates to a greater extent and be more useful once the play is established in the offensive zone. He was also disappointing and not quite comfortable at the World Championships, so experience itself at a high level of competition should help him.
As mentioned, he was great at the WJC but didn't display the same maturity in his game at the RSL level and was therby limited to a minor role with Ak Bars. He was even pushed out of the lineup completely towards the end of the season as well as the playoffs. I also think Buravchikov's undrafted WJC teammate, Evgeny Ryasensky, has now more or less taken over as Ak Bars' most salient up-and-coming defenseman. Its hard to say when and if Buravchikov could potentially be ready to come over to the NHL as that depends on his progress over the course of the next couple of seasons - a rather unpredictable matter which will be highly dependant upon just how much playing time he manages to get within Kazan's deep defensive core.
Although Shkotov didn't make any strides this season, I think he still has some potential that is yet to be realized. Trubachev, on the other hand, is likely to remain the player he currently is.
Большое спасибо за ответ. Болельщики Рейнджэрс почему-то считают что Анисимов готов играть на первой линии.
-- George.
