KHL All-Star Team in NHL

[Appleyard]

Their top two centres would let them down big-time. It would be the big hole in the team that meant they could not compete. (they could get in playoffs, but not get far, as their 1C and 2C would get heavily outmatched.)

Sobotka as 3C would be great ofc, and there are a number of guys who could easily be good 4C's. Petteri Wirtanen is a guy who springs to mind who could probably do that job well, good PKer, great on draw, blocks shots for fun... but there are probably even better options at 4C.

The top 6 wingers would be great, like as good as pretty much any NHL team. Kovalchuk, Radulov, Zaripov & Mozyakin? Awesome fire-power.

They could put together a good group of bottom six wingers... there are some great defensive guys, PKers and grinders in the KHL... contrary to stereotypes, but there are, and they could assemble a good group.

The defense would be decent, Voynov, Zaitsev & Chudinov would be a great foundation... Voynov is arguably a ~#2 in the NHL and the other two I feel almost certain would be #4's at worse. It could be the ~15th-20th best in the NHL maybe.

The goalies would be below average, but not awful I reckon.

 

[RandV]

Panarin was 4th overall in scoring in the KHL last year, there definitely aren't 32 Panarins hidden in the KHL. There are also a lot of guys who do really well in the KHL but just can't make the transition to the NHL. Steve Moses dominated the K last year and couldn't make the NHL (granted that was on the Predators who have a stacked D), Stephane Da Costa couldn't stick on the Senators but was one of the top players in the KHL last year.

I think a KHL All Star Team would be a bubble playoff team at best. I'm sure they have enough guys who would be solid NHL players to ice a decent roster, but there are also a lot of guys that flourish there that just aren't suited for the NHL.

I'm not saying you need a team full of Panarin's, just enough to provide adequate scoring. Going by some names I recognize who were effective in the NHL (for a few seasons at least) before returning to the KHL, you could have a starting top 9 of:

Kovalchuk-?-Radulov
S.Kostitsyn-?-A.Kostitsyn
?-V.Sobotka-?

That's the start of a legitimate NHL forward group, without needing to go after the Da Costa's of the league. Next you just need 4 more guys who are untested in the NHL but can be effective here, and you have your top 9 forwards.