Little bored this morning, so I did some digging into Kaprizov's shooting percentage. If we're going to pay this guy upwards of 9 million, might be helpful to know how repeatable his very high 17.8 % shooting percentage is.
The good news is, it appears it might be relatively inline with his normal shooting percentage.
He was a career 15.7 % shooter in the KHL, but that includes his predraft and D+1 season were he only shot 9%. His last 4 years in the KHL, he had a 17.4 % shooting percentage, all seasons between 15% - 19% (so it wasn't buoyed by one big year or anything). Shooting percentage's in the KHL tend to be a bit higher based on some anecdotal checking of other big KHL scorers, but Kaprizov's shooting percentage certainly stands out among players who have came to the NHL from the KHL (or vice versa).
Kovalchuk had a big drop in shooting percentage when he headed to the KHL, but it seems to have started the previous 2 years in NJ where he failed to crack 10% after being a consistent 14+% guy.
Gusev similiarly had a big drop coming to the NHL from the KHL, but also seemed to start the season before. May be age releated (or bad luck in his still small NHL sample size)
Radulov only had a minor 1% drop heading to the KHL looking at career numbers. Might be the closest example we can find of high percentage shooters playing in both leagues in their prime.
Grigerenko, similiarly has a bout a 1% drop in his career NHL numbers compared to KHL numbers.
Edit: Not sure why I spaced on checking Panarin. Career 14.6% in NHL, 12.4% his last 4 years in KHL (but 15.5% his last two years in KHL).
Just some food for thought. While his shooting percentage seems sky high, it might be pretty close to his expected norm. Wonder if anyone has ever done a large scale NHL to KHL shooting percentage comparison between the leagues. Basic look it appears to hold within a percentage point or two. That's very good for us.