Kucherov was always a monster, it’s hard to compare him with anyone.
Gritsyuk is having a massive D+3 season but Kaprizov blew up the KHL in his D+2 year before that.
Gritsyuk’s D+2 year isn’t that impressive because he couldn’t get a foothold in the KHL and lot of that had to do with his size and strength at the time.
I mentioned this before, Kaprizov was 5’9” when he was drafted but he was also 185. He bulked up and is over 200 now.
Grits was 5’10” and 169 when drafted and is listed at 174 now. He’s technically a very good skater but he went in the 5th round because he was a Russian who didn’t have the elite skating speed that scouts demand of smaller players.
He got strong enough to be very effective in the KHL as a productive scoring two-way top six forward by age 20. That’s an impressive development curve. He’s clearly a very motivated player, and not one dimensional at all, but he’s always going to be a little small.
I would like him signed after 2022-23, even if he burns the first year of ELC playing in Russia, rather than him sign another two year deal there. He has another season in the KHL either way.
Panarin was 32nd on Central Scouting European Skater rankings in 2010. Panarin later thanked GMs for not drafting him so he could chose where he wanted to go in 2015.
The Russians in European Skaters before Bread: #2 Tarasenko RW (2010 STL Rd 1 #16), #3 Kuznetsov C (2010 WSH Rd 1 #26) #5 Maxim Kitsyn LW (2010 LAK Rd 6 #158), #12 Alexei Marchenko D (2011 DET Rd 7 #205), #19 Gusev LW (2012 TBL Rd 7 #202), #22 Sergei Barbashev RW (Nope but his brother Ivan was in 2014 & Maxim is a prospect in the 2022 draft) and then #32 Panarin.
Under North American Skaters: #11 Burmistrov C (2010 ATL Rd #8, oh Atlanta…), #20 Stanislav Galiev RW (2010 WSH Rd 3 #86), #31 Kirill Kabanov LW (2010 NYI Rd 3 #65), #33 Ivan Telegin LW (2010 ATL Rd 4 #101)
And the Bruins drafted an overager who was #179 on 2009 Central Scouting Euro Skating list, Maxim Chudinov (2010 Rd 7 #195).
#33 Jesper Fast RW (NYR 2010 Rd 6 #157), #34 Johan Larsson LW (2010 MIN Rd 2 #56), #35 Tim Heed D (2010 ANA Rd 5 #132) and #37 Joakim Nordstrom C (2010 ANA Rd 5 #132) were all drafted so you got picked in that range if you’re Swedish apparently.
John Klingberg was drafted at #133 after Nordstrom and wasn’t even on the list of 150 European Skaters, which is a weirder omission than Panarin not getting drafted frankly.
2010 CSB FINAL (EUR SKATERS)
As a side note, the Blueshirt Banter draft thread in 2010 is legendary in the build-up of their excitement as Cam Fowler remains available until their #10 pick and when Sather takes Dylan McIlrath they’re all brutally stunned, but not surprised at all in a might-as-well-give-up-on-life sort of way. Some of responses are hilarious and merciless. (It’s been years since I’ve seen it but a group meltdown for the ages.)