LW/RW Kirill Kaprizov (2015, 135th, MIN) - Part II
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MuckOG
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One of the few knocks on Kaprizov coming into the NHL was supposed to be his "average" skating. It doesn't look average to me...in fact, his skating looks pretty damn good to me. He has great acceleration from a dead stop and his edge work is elite, IMO.
He really improved it in the last season or two. He always had an elite edge work, but his speed wasn't especially great. He still isn't the fastest player on the ice, but he's become much better.
KHL has been getting scouted much better lately. There is no way, a player like Kaprizov would have being picked lower, than in the late 1st. I mean, he always considered a better player, than Gurianov, who was picked 12th OA.
Nice skating, but he's not real fast...just fast enough. Certainly not elite. His decision making is very good, it appears, and for someone with a scorer's mentality he seemed to not to make a lot of turnovers, or float. Battles hard for pucks.
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Danila Yurov Fan Club Executive Assistant
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probably the most impressive thing about him that I wasn't anticipating, and a lot of things fall under that category, is his deception with the puck. He's truly got elite IQ from what I saw in that game. Look at this play, it's the perfect example. When he opens up to 2 and 20 with his feet, he does a little pump fake with his stickhandeling towards the top of the crease. This shifted the defenders' anticipation to that area for the half-second he needed to feed Rask up high.
Skating through the zone, you could tell he's an above average skater for the level. He's not an elite skater like Fiala, but he's fast enough that he's not getting caught from behind. The deceptiveness on these rushes was incredible too. The way he'd swivel to draw defenders to a spot and make subtle plays to teammates with the puck was simply a delight to watch. I recall one zone entry where he slowed and drew the defender to the boards and dropped it to Bjugstad who has time and space to make a play (he didn't)
Skating through the zone, you could tell he's an above average skater for the level. He's not an elite skater like Fiala, but he's fast enough that he's not getting caught from behind. The deceptiveness on these rushes was incredible too. The way he'd swivel to draw defenders to a spot and make subtle plays to teammates with the puck was simply a delight to watch. I recall one zone entry where he slowed and drew the defender to the boards and dropped it to Bjugstad who has time and space to make a play (he didn't)
It is a Z in his name and it is pronounced like one. It is KapriZov, like in "Zoo". I am baffled by the anouncers as it is the case where it is pronounced the way it's written with no linguistic intricacies.
An old one, but still relevant
He has freaky strong legs. The kind I saw on Bure or St.Louis. Not a bad company to be in.
Those days the scouting was atrocious. It would have been the simplest thing for a beginner NHL scout to ask some questions in Russia to just learn that Novokuznetsk is one of the best and strongest hockey schools in Russia. Not watching it closely is criminal. That's how Bobrovskiy and Kaprizov happened.
It got better, but I still doubt NHL scouting in Russia. Also they'd have to be scouting three leagues MHL/VHL/KHL to do it properly. It is certainly not an easy task, but it does not have to be some NHL team's pan-european scout who has to travel Sweden, Finnland, Switzerland, Chech Republic, Slovakia, Germany nowadays and then also go to most eastern russian hockey locations. But that's how it often is. If they hired some russain guys who would travel Russia for them it would be more effective I suppose. Probably some teams do and some don't as indirectly evidenced by their drafting.
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Which Russians would that be? We are talking about top prospects as in guys who were projected to make the NHL, remember?
An interesting insight from Sergachyov:
Михаил Сергачев: «Молодой Капризов в КХЛ играл как ветеран. Я уже тогда понял, что он будет лидером»
He talks about when he was still in juniors and a year older Kaprizov was already in the KHLas a 17 year old.
Some quotes:
"KHL seemed so far away to me, but there I saw a guy a year older than me playing" Nice piece about motivation.
"But Kaprizov looked like a vet who is playing in the KHL for five years already. Very calm decisions, accurate passing, very strong in the corners. You could see how hard he works. Agile, fast and athletic. Never falling down when hit." That one directly goes to the NHL scouting department
"I met him for the first time when I played for the 1997 NT. We had three leaders on the team: Kaprizov, Gurianov and Samsonov. You could see right away that Kaprizov is a leader on the team... He did not talk much, but when he did, everybody listened. That's for me the major indication for the team accepting a leader."
"There was no practice with Kaprizov just skating around. He is a very hard worker, that's his main trait."
Михаил Сергачев: «Молодой Капризов в КХЛ играл как ветеран. Я уже тогда понял, что он будет лидером»
He talks about when he was still in juniors and a year older Kaprizov was already in the KHLas a 17 year old.
Some quotes:
"KHL seemed so far away to me, but there I saw a guy a year older than me playing" Nice piece about motivation.
"But Kaprizov looked like a vet who is playing in the KHL for five years already. Very calm decisions, accurate passing, very strong in the corners. You could see how hard he works. Agile, fast and athletic. Never falling down when hit." That one directly goes to the NHL scouting department
"I met him for the first time when I played for the 1997 NT. We had three leaders on the team: Kaprizov, Gurianov and Samsonov. You could see right away that Kaprizov is a leader on the team... He did not talk much, but when he did, everybody listened. That's for me the major indication for the team accepting a leader."
"There was no practice with Kaprizov just skating around. He is a very hard worker, that's his main trait."
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Vorobiev, Yakubov, Smirnov, Kryukov, Mikhunov, Makarov, Alexandrov, etc
Russia just simply has not produced many great players lately.
Vorobiev went to the AHL to develop. Yakupov went all the way through OHL. None of the other prospects you mentioned was ever considered a prospect to make the NHL, no matter which Alexandrov you mean or who is "Mikhunov".
Russia has produces SOME great players lately too. It seems you try hard to prove a lost point.
YakuBOV... The 11th overall pick.
Smirnov was a 12th.overall pick, Kryukov was a 15th overall pick and Mikhnov was a 17th overall pick... Those arent expect to make the NHL?
Both Makarov and Alexandrov were very early second round picks and were expected to be NHL talents, neither came close.
Add even more players like Nikulin, Zaynullin, Glazachev, etc.
You always speak in such absolutes that Russian hockey > CHL yet dont seem to even know your own players.
I laughed at how Quick looked at him after the OTG like 'You MF...' because he didn't really beat him on the move and the puck went off his own skate. Ice looked pretty shitty.
He was impressive though. Biggest thing that stood out was ability to hold onto the puck in the offensive zone.
He was impressive though. Biggest thing that stood out was ability to hold onto the puck in the offensive zone.
YakuBOV... The 11th overall pick.
Smirnov was a 12th.overall pick, Kryukov was a 15th overall pick and Mikhnov was a 17th overall pick... Those arent expect to make the NHL?
Both Makarov and Alexandrov were very early second round picks and were expected to be NHL talents, neither came close.
Add even more players like Nikulin, Zaynullin, Glazachev, etc.
You always speak in such absolutes that Russian hockey > CHL yet dont seem to even know your own players.
Thanks a lot for proving my point. Just to pull SOME argument out of thin air you had to go that far in the past. Only by doing that you disregarded some major factors. Purposedly?
You just randomly picked guys form the 2000 draft.
Mikhail Yakubov, he was a 1oOA pick... in 2000. That was 20 years ago. How is this ANY relevant to the discussion. The NHL scouting in Russia was even far worse than it is now(it's current state was discussed here often enough). NHL teams just made some weird picks based on bad scouting. Please go ask NHL teams why the holy F... the picked in the first round guys some of which weren't even good enough to be at the WJC squad, some of them were, but were just filler. Just to put in perspective if in 2021 you tell people that some guy out of Russia was drafted 15thOA whose best achievement was 9 points in 15 games in the 2nd tier russian league they would not believe you. Meet Artyom Kryukov. You can go compre that to Denisenko a 15thOA from 2018, a guy who's had some glimpses of success in the KHL already and was far more prominent in lower tier leagues at draft day. And Denisenko has high bust potential btw and is a good example of still bad scouting by the NHL. But at least you can somewhat see where those NHL scouts came from when they rated him as a first rounder. Back in 2000 that Russians drafting was just crap shooting all the way. So yeah, maybe some NHL GMs thought they had some potential, but in Russia they would only reap some laughter. Again, some picks out of Russia by the NHL are weird to this day.
But that's not all of it. Back in 2000 russian hockey was in shambles. The KHL wasn't even a shadow of an idea. So again, how are your examples any relevant? Of course in 2000 developing in Russia did not mean for Russians having MHL, VHL and KHL with a solid structure and financial basis.
The discussion never was about ifback in 2000 developing in Russia was an option for Russians. Obviously you can't come up with proper examples.
Btw Nikulin has become a top notch defenceman. He just doid not want to got to NA at some point, just like a couple of others who had the talent. And second rounders have a success rate around 12-25% depending on what criteria for success you take. Picking s2nd rounders who did not make it is not a great choice as most of them don't regardless of where they develop.
This discussion is about Kaprizov, who happens to be Russian. If you want to have a general discussion about Russian prospects, and the best way to develop them, why not make a thread about that? Then those interested in that subject can go there, while the posters who want to talk about Kaprizov can stay here, and talk about...Kaprizov.
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Danila Yurov Fan Club Executive Assistant
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Kaprizov, Fiala and the Wild rally from down 3-1 after two to win 4-3 in overtime for the second game in a row. The two I singled out had pretty rough games, but you see it in their skill set that even in a bad game they have the ability to take over a shift and impact a game, which is a breath of fresh air for Wild fans.
Still missing some pieces, but trending well
Still missing some pieces, but trending well
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Danila Yurov Fan Club Executive Assistant
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