Ducks select first Russian born skater since 2001

[mattihp]

These draft things are interesting. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Red wings had NEVER drafted a finn before their pick of Valtteri Filppula in 2002.

 

[crackdown44]

Only one NHL team didn't draft any player from the QMJHL in the first 4 rounds since 2014. And it's the Habs.

So dumb, they’re so afraid that it’ll look like they’re only drafting a player because he’s French that they now won’t draft a French guy even if he’s BPA

 

[JoVel]

Boston also used to and possibly still doesn’t like Russians

Don Cherry would have a mental breakdown if Bruins started to draft Russians.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

It's funny because I remember that draft. Chistov must have really left a mark for the entire country to be blacklisted almost twenty years.

Chistov was a monster talent

He came over in his age 19 year in 2002 and put up 30 points. By today's standards that doesnt seem great but back then when a teenager came into the clutch and grab league where adult men can just manhandle young player it was pretty impressive.

The next season he had 2 goals and somehow not only didn't improve but got worse. He was known for having great hands but he was terrible but you know what even good players have sophomore slumps.

He goes to Russia during the lockout year and was good enough to where new GM Brian Burke wanted to bring him back

He lasted 5 games before he got traded to Boston.

He never played in the NHL again after 2006 there's been alleged off ice issues but I've never read about a specific incident

Anaheim also had another highly touted Russian around that time. Alexei Smirnov

They both had their NHL debuts the same night in St. Louis

Chistov at 19 had a 1 goal 3 assist debut

Smirnov at 20 had 1 goal 1 assist debut

It couldn't have gone better these two were the crown jewels of Anaheims farm system at the time

Smirnov finished his NHL career with 6 points and never returned after 2004

 

[joestevens29]

I don't think Edmonton is afraid of drafting Russians, but we sure haven't had any success with Russian players in a long time.

Belov - hated it here
Grebeshkov - End of his career
Bulin - wasn't decent at times, but had issues
Bryzgalov - I can't even remember his play, but his interviews were gold at least.
Nikitn - Ugh 2 years 5mil or something for a #6/7
Yakimov - Drafted by us, still have his rights but had issues with culture in North America or something
Slepyshev - Shows glimpses of a decent bottom 6, but left back to Russia
Zykov - Barely played, think we waived him. Probably got him on waivers
Yakupov - Don't have to say much there.

Essentially all the Russians that have played with us since RNH started playing for us in 11-12. Seem to draft one damn near every year and the hope for me is Samorukov breaks the trend, but Russians just haven't had success here in a long time.

 

[AKL]

Minnesota took three Russians in their first 15 drafts from 2000-2014:
Maxim Sushinski, 2000, rd5
Mikhail Tyulyapkin, 2002, rd9
Georgi Misharin, 2003, rd7

Since 2015, they've taken:
Kirill Kaprizov, 2015, rd5
Dmitry Sokolov, 2016, rd7
Andrei Svetlakov, 2017, rd6
Alex Khovanov, 2018, rd3
Vladislav Firstov, 2019, rd2
Matvey Guskov, 2019, rd5
Marat Khusnutdinov, 2020, rd2

We haven't drafted a skater from Finland since Granlund in 2010 (Kahkonen, goaltender, was taken in 2014).

Other than that, I can't really think of any weird trends in Minnesota's drafting.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

I think the Canes had only drafted 1 Russian skater before Svechnikov in 2018 (since the move to Carolina; Whalers drafted a few Russians). Since Svechnikov they've drafted 4 skaters and a goalie from Russia (3 Russian skaters this year).

 

[BagHead]

Yesterday the Ducks used their 129th overall pick to select Russian forward Artyom Galimov, the reigning KHL rookie of the year.

Galimov is the first Russian skater drafted by the Ducks since they selected Stanislav Chistov and Vladimir Korsunov back in 2001. During that span they drafted one Russian goalie, Igor Bobkov in 2009.

Needless to say that the Galimov choice broke a long drought that was starting to look like more than just a coincidence.

Are there other teams with a similar trend of avoiding a particular major hockey nation in the draft?

*edit* Just saw AKL's post which is basically exactly my post. Just read his while I bow my head in shame for not reading the whole thread.

 

[HisIceness]

The Carolina Hurricanes pre-Svechnikov drafted a grand total of 1 Russian. That's right, just 1 player from Russia. That player was defenceman Igor Knyazev, #15th overall in 2001, who played a grand total of 0 NHL games which might explain why the JR/PK regime never did so again. Even the Hartford Whalers took 2 Russians in the 90's.

Since drafting Svechnikov, the Hurricanes have drafted 5 other Russians.

 

[Atas2000]

I am pretty happy about some teams not drafting Russians.

 

[Grandpa]

These draft things are interesting. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Red wings had NEVER drafted a finn before their pick of Valtteri Filppula in 2002.

Every year there's maybe handful of draft-worthy Finns around. It's easy to miss them just by coincidence. And they did have a lost generation which produced zero stars and mostly 3rd line grinders.

 

[mattihp]

Every year there's maybe handful of draft-worthy Finns around. It's easy to miss them just by coincidence. And they did have a lost generation which produced zero stars and mostly 3rd line grinders.

To miss them every year as an original-6-team is quite a feat. ALL expansion teams prior to that draft had already drafted finns.