Bosnian Beast
Formerly Janko Unchained
In addition to what AF was saying about Rafikov, I decided to look up some more about the kid. According to this article from January, the Flames are willing to wait on him.
“He’s an aggressive kid and he wants to make a difference and he wants to make an impact, and if you are that type of player and you get caught out of position and you are not a good skater, then it’s harder for you to recover,” Button said. “For sure, in the last two years, his feet are waaaaaay better. They’re underneath him a lot more. He doesn’t get caught out of position being aggressive as much because he has the ability to recover.
“His puck play is good. His mentality is good. His brain is good. I would say it’s just the physical part of skating and getting stronger and getting his feet underneath him a little bit more.”
“We keep in good contact with him through our development guys. We don’t want to bring him over before he’s ready, and we have time on him. There’s no rush to get him here. The longer he can play over there and play at a high level, that’s good for us. We don’t have to develop everybody in the AHL. The coach there in Yaroslavl right now is Dave King, and Dave King is a pretty good development coach. He’s a well-respected guy who can help a young guy like that, so we’re not in a rush to get him over.
“We’re certainly in a patient mode with (Rafikov),” Button added. “He’s a seventh-round pick and he was a seventh-round pick for a reason — it’s because he needs a little more time. We have that with him, and we’re going to use it.”