He played with Gazizov, I wouldn't say, he's bad.
In my opinion Gazizov was the best pure playmaker I've seen him play with, and I've seen at least 15 games of Miro. Obviously Michkov is a special player, but they're not a great fit together. I don't think that says anything about either player's hockey IQ. Crosby and Malkin aren't so great together either. Gazizov was a perfect fit for Miro - he is such a crafty passer whose primary focus was getting the puck on Miro's stick in shooting positions.
I was thinking similarly, I really loved his game at u18s, he seems like such a BULL. Do you think he could challenge for a top 3 spot next year?
Personally, I have had Miroshnichenko ranked number two since spring 2020 (after the 5N U17s). I wouldn't say he's locked in at that position, but so far his raw natural gifts put him a cut above everyone in this draft not named Shane Wright in my books.
He actually looks very good at the tournament. A lot of great passes and good team plays. I hope, I'm wrong about his IQ problems.
I don't entirely disagree about his hockey IQ. There are certainly smarter forward prospects in this draft (Wright, Yurov, Cooley would probably be my top 3 in that regard). A couple things I'd like to note though: one is that Miroshnichenko has only played 20 games at the MHL level, plus a couple U18 tournaments, prior to that he had played 16 league games at the U18 level and 16 at the U17 level. Practice is one thing, but a player that age needs high-level game action to develop high-level game IQ.
He started opening night on the top line for VHL Krylya today, and had a pretty quiet night. But thankfully he's finally at the pro level, which is going to be so crucial for his scouting and development. The big thing with Miro is, he's at his best when he plays that raging bull power game, protecting pucks, skating into traffic, shooting through sticks, bouncing off of checks, but at lower levels he has always been able to get by on skill alone, and to easily dominate physically when he wanted to. I was so frustrated at times watching him in MHL last year because he would show flashes of what he can be, but would all too often rely on his skill, as was especially the case at the spring U18s where he made a lot of pretty dumb plays trying to force things; but note again, he had never before come up against anything like the level of talent on that Canada team.
Now that he's in the VHL, he's going to have to start learning how to play the right way, and I think we will have a much clearer picture pretty soon of whether he's closer to number two or ten overall.
