SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,359
- 5,313
Another yearly tradition. Thoughts so far:
Players I didn't even know were capable of playing in the KHL before this season:
Andrei Obidin. I thought of him as a guy who can skate really fast and has a decent shot but lacks hockey sense to do much else. But he really grew into his body and Martemyanov uses him on the 1st PP unit this year. Naturally, the points are aplenty under circumstances, 6 in 7 games so far. Career-best is topped already.
Danila Zhuravlyov and Kamil Fazilzyanov. Despite Ak Bars having a plethora of prospects of the previous generation (Musin, Lyamkin, Abrosimov, Yudin) it looks like these 2 guys are going to get the minutes under Kvartalnov.
Maybe THE breakout player of 19/20 so far, Svetoslav Grebenshchikov. Scoring goals and playing close to 20 minutes per game, recently. You would expect him to slow down but as his TOI rises I there is a good chance he will finish the season with 15-18 goals. Yegor Voronkov is another on Vityaz quietly building up his resume.
Dinamo Minsk is worth keeping an eye on as a team, they are giving the young guys lots of chances, I wouldn't say any of them managed to particularly impress, so far. Dmitryi Deryabin has been surprisingly decent considering his age, position and pretty bad season in the USHL last year.
Pavel Khomchenko is definitely Spartak's goalie of the future. Despite taking over Bespalov he might be sent down after Hudacek gets healthy purely for financial reasons but even this early it's clear Khomchenko will be on Spartak's roster full-time next year.
Alexander Nikishin is definitely making most waves in the KHL from 2020 draftees, sadly I had to watch quite a lot of Spartak games this year and even going game-to-game it's obvious how much more confident he is getting and how much he is growing into the pro-active role rather than just being there. Andrei Mironov was somewhat similar in his rookie season, hopefully Nikishin develops into something more. But definitely the most impressive draftee D in years.
I don't think anyone, even in Belarus, expected this. Andrei Belevich is an impact player for the Torpedo in the KHL after moving from the Belarussian league. He has played himself into top-6 role leapfrogging other hopefuls on the team like Ilyin, Urakov, and Veryaev. A huge surprise, the guy who didn't make the Belarus NT, who was never really on the radar for Dinamo Minsk is making the case he is actually the best young-ish Belarussian forward in Europe.
Ivan Fedotov is a really interesting case, he has been amazing for Traktor so far (.952 Sv%) as Demchenko struggled. Despite being a pretty big profile prospect he never made any of the junior teams, he had a pretty tough first pro season in the VHL. 2nd one went better but he got stuck in the pecking order behind Daniil Tarasov because well, it's Daniil Tarasov. So he got given away to Traktor, basically, and it's the best move there could have possibly been for both sides. I don't think Traktor were expecting it either, I think Fedotov was supposed to be an insurance policy for Sukhachyov but he grabbed the ball and ran with it. So really an amazing win-win situation.
Another Traktor player, Ilya Karpukhin, is playing well over 20 minutes per night. I don't think he is quite that good yet, it does have to do with a thin-ish Traktor defense but again, the guy has all the chances to impress and grow into the role. He has 5 points in 9 games so offensive production is not a problem, he needs to clean up things in the D zone though.
Players with a lot of hype around bound to break out eventually:
Kirill Semyonov is very good. Even though he averaged almost 30 points over the last 3 seasons I think nobody yet recognizes him as a legitimate top-6 center. Ava's injury situation is the perfect circumstance for him to establish himself, I think he should smash 40 points this year.
Valeri Orekhov and Kirill Polukhov - those guys are the future of Kazakh hockey and they really are pretty good but have only been trusted with limited minutes so far. It has risen over the course of the season so far so maybe they can build on it.
Alexander Samonov played very well for a few stretches last and it seems Vityaz are running a 1A/B system last year. Or maybe Samonov just forced them into running that as he has been spectacular so far, .981 on the season.
Henrik Haapala needs that one, full, good pro season to put himself into that Linus Omark category of players not built for the NHL but who can dominate European leagues for a decade.
Nikita Cherepanov has been on the radar forever with other Ds from Loko system (does anyone remember Roman Manukhov?) but he is currently ahead of Staffan Kronwall in TOI so well in a position to establish himself.
Almost everyone on Loko's forward group.
Pavel Poryadin has been a name featured here for years as well, his breakout is taking literally years but he has 6 points in 7 games so far, definitely ahead start to a real breakout season. Neftekhimik isn't flush with options to take away his ice time either.
Different from everyone else on this list but was anyone expecting Nikita Soshnikov to score 50-60 points rather than 30-40? His offensive upside absolutely amazed me so far.
Igor Geraskin finds himself firmly on the top line in Cherepovets, it's interesting how much of a step forward can he take. He will get there eventually it's just about how fast does he build big enough profile to move to a better team.
As long as Kochetkov and Melnychuk stick on the SKA roster they can prove something. Interestingly, the start of the season is starting to show Kochetkov could still use some time in the VHL and it's Melnychuk who outgrew it.
Under the circumstances, it's hard to expect fireworks from Aleksandr Romanov but his TOI is slightly increasing, he is playing over 15 minutes in easier matchups or if CSKA have a comfortable lead. Breakout in a real sense is next to impossible but he should steadily develop nicely.
Congratulations to those players who were expected to break out by us and they did:
Pavel Dedunov scored more goals last year than in his entire career before.
Artyom Shvets-Rogovoy truly established himself as a 2C on the team last year.
One of the last posts in last year's thread says Vladimir Butuzov is good at hockey. He has been a dud so far, the contract dispute and missing pre-season likely has to do with it as well but overall, he is seen as a 25-30 point player now. If I had to guess that's what the contract dispute was about as well. He wanted 25 point player money and was offered 25 point player on Admiral money.
Ilya Konovalov put Salak on the bench.
Damir Sharipzyanov scored 24 points and got an invitation to the Russian NT system establishing himself as one of the better young Dman in the league.
Nikolai Demidov has grown very nicely and made an impact at both ends of the ice really showing he carries #1 D potential. Too bad he's injured at the start of this season.
Damir Zhafyarov has been on this list ever since Kuznya days and long last, he has done it. 30 points last year and the even better start of the season this year. It definitely looks like he has finally made it. Way back in the day I said he is the better prospect than Slepyshev. An extremely bold statement at the time it once again becomes a close argument 7-8 years later.
Konstantin Okulov has been another permanent feature but I think scoring 14 points in 17 playoff games graduates him as a bona fide elite offensive talent in this league.
Players I didn't even know were capable of playing in the KHL before this season:
Andrei Obidin. I thought of him as a guy who can skate really fast and has a decent shot but lacks hockey sense to do much else. But he really grew into his body and Martemyanov uses him on the 1st PP unit this year. Naturally, the points are aplenty under circumstances, 6 in 7 games so far. Career-best is topped already.
Danila Zhuravlyov and Kamil Fazilzyanov. Despite Ak Bars having a plethora of prospects of the previous generation (Musin, Lyamkin, Abrosimov, Yudin) it looks like these 2 guys are going to get the minutes under Kvartalnov.
Maybe THE breakout player of 19/20 so far, Svetoslav Grebenshchikov. Scoring goals and playing close to 20 minutes per game, recently. You would expect him to slow down but as his TOI rises I there is a good chance he will finish the season with 15-18 goals. Yegor Voronkov is another on Vityaz quietly building up his resume.
Dinamo Minsk is worth keeping an eye on as a team, they are giving the young guys lots of chances, I wouldn't say any of them managed to particularly impress, so far. Dmitryi Deryabin has been surprisingly decent considering his age, position and pretty bad season in the USHL last year.
Pavel Khomchenko is definitely Spartak's goalie of the future. Despite taking over Bespalov he might be sent down after Hudacek gets healthy purely for financial reasons but even this early it's clear Khomchenko will be on Spartak's roster full-time next year.
Alexander Nikishin is definitely making most waves in the KHL from 2020 draftees, sadly I had to watch quite a lot of Spartak games this year and even going game-to-game it's obvious how much more confident he is getting and how much he is growing into the pro-active role rather than just being there. Andrei Mironov was somewhat similar in his rookie season, hopefully Nikishin develops into something more. But definitely the most impressive draftee D in years.
I don't think anyone, even in Belarus, expected this. Andrei Belevich is an impact player for the Torpedo in the KHL after moving from the Belarussian league. He has played himself into top-6 role leapfrogging other hopefuls on the team like Ilyin, Urakov, and Veryaev. A huge surprise, the guy who didn't make the Belarus NT, who was never really on the radar for Dinamo Minsk is making the case he is actually the best young-ish Belarussian forward in Europe.
Ivan Fedotov is a really interesting case, he has been amazing for Traktor so far (.952 Sv%) as Demchenko struggled. Despite being a pretty big profile prospect he never made any of the junior teams, he had a pretty tough first pro season in the VHL. 2nd one went better but he got stuck in the pecking order behind Daniil Tarasov because well, it's Daniil Tarasov. So he got given away to Traktor, basically, and it's the best move there could have possibly been for both sides. I don't think Traktor were expecting it either, I think Fedotov was supposed to be an insurance policy for Sukhachyov but he grabbed the ball and ran with it. So really an amazing win-win situation.
Another Traktor player, Ilya Karpukhin, is playing well over 20 minutes per night. I don't think he is quite that good yet, it does have to do with a thin-ish Traktor defense but again, the guy has all the chances to impress and grow into the role. He has 5 points in 9 games so offensive production is not a problem, he needs to clean up things in the D zone though.
Players with a lot of hype around bound to break out eventually:
Kirill Semyonov is very good. Even though he averaged almost 30 points over the last 3 seasons I think nobody yet recognizes him as a legitimate top-6 center. Ava's injury situation is the perfect circumstance for him to establish himself, I think he should smash 40 points this year.
Valeri Orekhov and Kirill Polukhov - those guys are the future of Kazakh hockey and they really are pretty good but have only been trusted with limited minutes so far. It has risen over the course of the season so far so maybe they can build on it.
Alexander Samonov played very well for a few stretches last and it seems Vityaz are running a 1A/B system last year. Or maybe Samonov just forced them into running that as he has been spectacular so far, .981 on the season.
Henrik Haapala needs that one, full, good pro season to put himself into that Linus Omark category of players not built for the NHL but who can dominate European leagues for a decade.
Nikita Cherepanov has been on the radar forever with other Ds from Loko system (does anyone remember Roman Manukhov?) but he is currently ahead of Staffan Kronwall in TOI so well in a position to establish himself.
Almost everyone on Loko's forward group.
Pavel Poryadin has been a name featured here for years as well, his breakout is taking literally years but he has 6 points in 7 games so far, definitely ahead start to a real breakout season. Neftekhimik isn't flush with options to take away his ice time either.
Different from everyone else on this list but was anyone expecting Nikita Soshnikov to score 50-60 points rather than 30-40? His offensive upside absolutely amazed me so far.
Igor Geraskin finds himself firmly on the top line in Cherepovets, it's interesting how much of a step forward can he take. He will get there eventually it's just about how fast does he build big enough profile to move to a better team.
As long as Kochetkov and Melnychuk stick on the SKA roster they can prove something. Interestingly, the start of the season is starting to show Kochetkov could still use some time in the VHL and it's Melnychuk who outgrew it.
Under the circumstances, it's hard to expect fireworks from Aleksandr Romanov but his TOI is slightly increasing, he is playing over 15 minutes in easier matchups or if CSKA have a comfortable lead. Breakout in a real sense is next to impossible but he should steadily develop nicely.
Congratulations to those players who were expected to break out by us and they did:
Pavel Dedunov scored more goals last year than in his entire career before.
Artyom Shvets-Rogovoy truly established himself as a 2C on the team last year.
One of the last posts in last year's thread says Vladimir Butuzov is good at hockey. He has been a dud so far, the contract dispute and missing pre-season likely has to do with it as well but overall, he is seen as a 25-30 point player now. If I had to guess that's what the contract dispute was about as well. He wanted 25 point player money and was offered 25 point player on Admiral money.
Ilya Konovalov put Salak on the bench.
Damir Sharipzyanov scored 24 points and got an invitation to the Russian NT system establishing himself as one of the better young Dman in the league.
Nikolai Demidov has grown very nicely and made an impact at both ends of the ice really showing he carries #1 D potential. Too bad he's injured at the start of this season.
Damir Zhafyarov has been on this list ever since Kuznya days and long last, he has done it. 30 points last year and the even better start of the season this year. It definitely looks like he has finally made it. Way back in the day I said he is the better prospect than Slepyshev. An extremely bold statement at the time it once again becomes a close argument 7-8 years later.
Konstantin Okulov has been another permanent feature but I think scoring 14 points in 17 playoff games graduates him as a bona fide elite offensive talent in this league.
Can we tranlaste Wayne to Vyacheslav?
