SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
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With almost 1/3 of the season behind us it becomes apparent who is who. This thread is not so much a guessing game this year but rather a guide whose progress to follow as they are on the verge of breaking out into the KHL stardom.
Many quite obviously talented players will be absent as they are with the big teams who simply won't give them the role to prove their worth. I also decided to separate this list into 2 categories this year as the guys fall into 2 distinctly separate categories: those who are legitimately good and are here to stay and those who managed to raise their profile due to favorable circumstance who will be seen more as KHL players from now on rather than fringe no-namers.
"A" graders:
Dmitri Voronkov - hard to expect a truly spectacular breakout from a 20-year-old playing for Ak Bars but he is still getting 15 minutes per game and some PP time so ~25 point campaign, somewhat similar to Galimov's last year, is still not out of the question. In any case, on of the more highly-touted prospects on this list.
Sergei Tolchinsky - still not the most convincing player 5v5 and still not trusted at the start of the season he had to go over PPG playing basically 3rd line minutes to be recognized as a true asset on the ice and likely the most talented offensive player Avangard has. Likely a perennial KHL star from this point on though.
Yegor Chinakhov - doesn't require any special insight to recognize overager good enough to be picked in the first round of the NHL draft is a figure worth mentioning. Interestingly enough, his emergence sent 2 other candidates for this list - Gritsyuk and Manukyan, to the VHL. It's actually quite a bit of a shame how the latter's career is going.
Dmitri Samorukov - odds are he won't be a KHL player much longer than this season but at the same time, I don't think anyone was quite sure of it before this season. Now, however, the guy seems like a player.
Yegor Sharangovich - after making quite a bit of noise as the first Belarussian player who can be pretty good in a long while Sharangovich was surrounded by uncertainty after 2 "meh" seasons in the AHL. However, upon coming back to Europe he is showing he can be an impact player in the KHL at the very least. Center with size, scoring ability and leadership good for 40 points if given the role. Yes, please.
Georgi Ivanov - a tremendous skater, although on pace for "only" 30ish points someone who can, I think, still make the NHL. Just turned 22 he is comparable in both style of play and career trajectory to the likes of Mikheyev and Barabanov. Probably never as gifted offensively as the former still a definite asset to any team.
Grigori Dronov - after years of rotten luck we are at the point where he is the best Magnitka's D. Last season was a good stepping stone and all the signs are there he is only going to get better at all aspects of the game despite already being trusted with more than 20 minutes per match when healthy.
Kirill Marchenko - again, an obvious one. Obvious talent who worked, proved his worth, got his chance, and is making the best of it. Brainteaser: you are on the board of 2018 draft with 2 players available, him and Denisenko. Who do you choose?
Justin Danforth - I don't really add imports to this list because most of them are known to be between good and great but Danforth took me by surprise. It is known I consider Liiga imports to be rather average but this guy brought the offensive package that blew me away. Definitely not a product of his linemates or anything like that either, it's all him. Unless he falls into some sort of black hole like Maione did the new Dawes/Bochenski/Ellison/Sexton etc. of this league. Kaski was the other import I also kinda considered.
The other guys:
Nikita Kamalov and Gleb Koryagin - I'm gluing these 2 together because they are very similar. Due to non-ending injuries to Amur's minute-eating Ds this year (Masin and Jordan, most notably) they have emerged as a solution to the problem. Both are playing in the top-4 now and both are about to eclipse their career-high in points. Koryagin seems more wonky player, for lack of a better term, Kamalov is a better-built, more usual modern-day defenseman who might actually be somewhat good if he continues to improve.
Sergei Zborovsky - from being sort of a spare part on 2 pretty bad teams in his first 2 KHL seasons got a chance with Avto and evidently, Peters really likes him. To the point where he is currently 4th in TOI on one of the better teams in the league. Right-handed shot and a pretty fast guy for his size, you can definitely do a lot worse than him on D.
Pavel Karnaukhov - still a player with many faults but in the cap world he managed to reach 0,5 PPG and eclipse his points-high already. Maybe he can still develop into more than a lanky opportunistic goal scorer but at this point, that's what he is. On pace for 20 goals so definitely deserves a mention though.
Daniil Miromanov - not quite sure what to think about this guy yet. Definite cannon of a shot so at the very least his offensive skills are going to be recognized going forward. Pretty huge surprise honestly, because his career so far was a bit of a train wreck. But he is with Sochi now, 2nd the team in TOI and one of a very few who can score while playing on it.
Pavel Kraskovsky - another one of the guys who were about to break out long enough to let people believe it will never happen. But on a 30 point pace now, playing left wing (something he has never done before, I think) on the top line with PP time. This is bound to be his most successful season since 16/17, expectations-wise.
Rafael Bikmullin - Neftekhimik is the team that gives chances and at this point, they "legitimize" 1-2 forwards per year as a bona fide KHL players (Avtsin, Poryadin, Khairullin, Shiksatdarov). Looks like it's Bikmullin turn this year, on pace for ~25 points in a middle-6 role.
Alexander Petunin - I'd say THE biggest eye-opener for me this year. He was yo-yoed between Severstal and Dinamo so many times I just started taking him as a player who just can't stick anywhere. It flew under my radar that he scored 17 points in 29 games for Seva last year and continues on roughly the same pace this year which makes him far and away the most productive player on the team. Small guy with wheels and some legitimate skill, it seems.
Nikita Shashkov - another pretty well-known guy who is slowly putting it all together. Will probably get close to 20 points this year. Still very weak on his skates for a guy who really shouldn't be considering his built.
Roman Manukhov - not so much a breakout year (because he had that 23 point season for Kuznya way way back in the day) but a comeback year after so many non-sensical seasons in bad situations on big teams. Now a steady role on still a rather solid team and once again approaching 25-30 point pace. Although I somewhat wonder how many of those are gonna be secondary assists to Bailen or Pilut who are the ones to really bring the mustard.
___________________________
This being a very production-oriented list, what are the other guys you think might explode in the second half of the season? I'd still give guys like Lyamkin, Geraskin, Rykov a chance, Chekhovich is definitely making a case. Some of the goalies (Tretiak?) might still show something.
Many quite obviously talented players will be absent as they are with the big teams who simply won't give them the role to prove their worth. I also decided to separate this list into 2 categories this year as the guys fall into 2 distinctly separate categories: those who are legitimately good and are here to stay and those who managed to raise their profile due to favorable circumstance who will be seen more as KHL players from now on rather than fringe no-namers.
"A" graders:
Dmitri Voronkov - hard to expect a truly spectacular breakout from a 20-year-old playing for Ak Bars but he is still getting 15 minutes per game and some PP time so ~25 point campaign, somewhat similar to Galimov's last year, is still not out of the question. In any case, on of the more highly-touted prospects on this list.
Sergei Tolchinsky - still not the most convincing player 5v5 and still not trusted at the start of the season he had to go over PPG playing basically 3rd line minutes to be recognized as a true asset on the ice and likely the most talented offensive player Avangard has. Likely a perennial KHL star from this point on though.
Yegor Chinakhov - doesn't require any special insight to recognize overager good enough to be picked in the first round of the NHL draft is a figure worth mentioning. Interestingly enough, his emergence sent 2 other candidates for this list - Gritsyuk and Manukyan, to the VHL. It's actually quite a bit of a shame how the latter's career is going.
Dmitri Samorukov - odds are he won't be a KHL player much longer than this season but at the same time, I don't think anyone was quite sure of it before this season. Now, however, the guy seems like a player.
Yegor Sharangovich - after making quite a bit of noise as the first Belarussian player who can be pretty good in a long while Sharangovich was surrounded by uncertainty after 2 "meh" seasons in the AHL. However, upon coming back to Europe he is showing he can be an impact player in the KHL at the very least. Center with size, scoring ability and leadership good for 40 points if given the role. Yes, please.
Georgi Ivanov - a tremendous skater, although on pace for "only" 30ish points someone who can, I think, still make the NHL. Just turned 22 he is comparable in both style of play and career trajectory to the likes of Mikheyev and Barabanov. Probably never as gifted offensively as the former still a definite asset to any team.
Grigori Dronov - after years of rotten luck we are at the point where he is the best Magnitka's D. Last season was a good stepping stone and all the signs are there he is only going to get better at all aspects of the game despite already being trusted with more than 20 minutes per match when healthy.
Kirill Marchenko - again, an obvious one. Obvious talent who worked, proved his worth, got his chance, and is making the best of it. Brainteaser: you are on the board of 2018 draft with 2 players available, him and Denisenko. Who do you choose?
Justin Danforth - I don't really add imports to this list because most of them are known to be between good and great but Danforth took me by surprise. It is known I consider Liiga imports to be rather average but this guy brought the offensive package that blew me away. Definitely not a product of his linemates or anything like that either, it's all him. Unless he falls into some sort of black hole like Maione did the new Dawes/Bochenski/Ellison/Sexton etc. of this league. Kaski was the other import I also kinda considered.
The other guys:
Nikita Kamalov and Gleb Koryagin - I'm gluing these 2 together because they are very similar. Due to non-ending injuries to Amur's minute-eating Ds this year (Masin and Jordan, most notably) they have emerged as a solution to the problem. Both are playing in the top-4 now and both are about to eclipse their career-high in points. Koryagin seems more wonky player, for lack of a better term, Kamalov is a better-built, more usual modern-day defenseman who might actually be somewhat good if he continues to improve.
Sergei Zborovsky - from being sort of a spare part on 2 pretty bad teams in his first 2 KHL seasons got a chance with Avto and evidently, Peters really likes him. To the point where he is currently 4th in TOI on one of the better teams in the league. Right-handed shot and a pretty fast guy for his size, you can definitely do a lot worse than him on D.
Pavel Karnaukhov - still a player with many faults but in the cap world he managed to reach 0,5 PPG and eclipse his points-high already. Maybe he can still develop into more than a lanky opportunistic goal scorer but at this point, that's what he is. On pace for 20 goals so definitely deserves a mention though.
Daniil Miromanov - not quite sure what to think about this guy yet. Definite cannon of a shot so at the very least his offensive skills are going to be recognized going forward. Pretty huge surprise honestly, because his career so far was a bit of a train wreck. But he is with Sochi now, 2nd the team in TOI and one of a very few who can score while playing on it.
Pavel Kraskovsky - another one of the guys who were about to break out long enough to let people believe it will never happen. But on a 30 point pace now, playing left wing (something he has never done before, I think) on the top line with PP time. This is bound to be his most successful season since 16/17, expectations-wise.
Rafael Bikmullin - Neftekhimik is the team that gives chances and at this point, they "legitimize" 1-2 forwards per year as a bona fide KHL players (Avtsin, Poryadin, Khairullin, Shiksatdarov). Looks like it's Bikmullin turn this year, on pace for ~25 points in a middle-6 role.
Alexander Petunin - I'd say THE biggest eye-opener for me this year. He was yo-yoed between Severstal and Dinamo so many times I just started taking him as a player who just can't stick anywhere. It flew under my radar that he scored 17 points in 29 games for Seva last year and continues on roughly the same pace this year which makes him far and away the most productive player on the team. Small guy with wheels and some legitimate skill, it seems.
Nikita Shashkov - another pretty well-known guy who is slowly putting it all together. Will probably get close to 20 points this year. Still very weak on his skates for a guy who really shouldn't be considering his built.
Roman Manukhov - not so much a breakout year (because he had that 23 point season for Kuznya way way back in the day) but a comeback year after so many non-sensical seasons in bad situations on big teams. Now a steady role on still a rather solid team and once again approaching 25-30 point pace. Although I somewhat wonder how many of those are gonna be secondary assists to Bailen or Pilut who are the ones to really bring the mustard.
___________________________
This being a very production-oriented list, what are the other guys you think might explode in the second half of the season? I'd still give guys like Lyamkin, Geraskin, Rykov a chance, Chekhovich is definitely making a case. Some of the goalies (Tretiak?) might still show something.
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