I think the Kovalchuks, Nashs, Bouwmeesters of the hockey world have a.) really spoiled us as hockey fans and b.) planted a common misconception in our minds.
It seems that if a player doesn't make the jump to the NHL right away, and isn't established as a solid player by the time he's 20-21 - he is very easily written off.
While, I don't think we can take anything away from the tremendous feat that Kovalchuk and the like have accomplished, we shouldn't be so down on players because they take more than 2 years to develop.
Guys like Backman, Raycroft, Ryder, Zetterberg, Malone, Hunter have shown that they can come in at the age of 22-23 and still be good NHL players and recognize their full potential.
Now I realize that there are other concerns with Chistov besides age, but I just had to get this off my chest.