Good one.
***
One funny story about Barkov. At junior age he was too defensive. His dad had to teach him to be more offensive, not to be a "central defender" (soccer term), you are a centre forward! Sasha was always helping the defence as a first guy, and after those shifts in the own end he was too exhausted to create any offence. He told this himself in one story.
I have never heard this kind of things about a young kid. Usually they are selfish offensive idiots and defence comes later in the adult age.
He is mentally like Datsyuk. He thinks hockey at soccer way, just like Pavels does. He is humble, but has some good jokes. And he wants to win. He has got his hand-eye coordination from Tennis, his older brother was a mediocre tennis-professional. And he is still growing, maybe 6'4 will be his final height. Biggest improvement from last season has come in lower-body strength. Now he can handle tackes, doesn't fly on the ice from every contact.
But what comes for Barkov, he is seventeen, plays already both PK and PP at Tappara, 19 minutes a night. Quite a huge jump from last seasons 13 minutes. His faceoff percentage has also improved from under 40 (at last season) to 54%. He playes with NHL'rs (Nieminen and Hansen, Foster) against NHLrs (some other lockout-helps here) and does well. It will be nice to see how he manages against juniors at WJC. That should be domination, if his linemates are on the map as him.