I thought about going Gavrikov here. I ultimately decided against it, just because to me, the #1 prospect should be the guy I think has the best chance of being a special NHL player. Gavrikov probably has the best chance of being a solid NHL contributor (playing real minutes for SKA and the Russian national team means he's probably NHL quality right now), but for him to be a special player, his offensive game would have to take a quantum leap. I'll vote for him before too long.
This is going to be a fun year to do this because there's very little to separate the top eight or nine guys. Texier, Foudy, Abramov and Davidsson in particular are extremely tough to split, for me. I ended up going with Foudy here because like I said above, I think he's got the best chance to be a special player. Abramov has superlative puck skills and he produced much more in a similar league when he was Foudy's age, but he doesn't have Foudy's natural physical gifts. It's interesting that he learned to play center in the Q last year, but I still kind of wish he'd gone to Europe, because I think playing against men would have been more valuable for his development than wrecking the Q again (this time on a line with Max Comtois, which just doesn't seem fair). I might vote for Texier ahead of Abramov (if Foudy makes a miraculous comeback here) for that reason: he's 16 months younger, but he's already shown he's comfortable playing against fully grown adults, which Abramov still hasn't.
