When I wrote of my example I was thinking primarily of the early Russians from the Green Unit then in more recent times Gusov and Shipachyov primarily although Kovalchuk in a Kings uniform also came to mind.
It's great for people to bring up examples of players once they make a huge splash but it's alot harder to do in realm time with every Russian prospect that stays in Russia.
What I think the poster I was responding too is overlooking is that many top prospects from everywhere end up not making it no matter where they are developed.
Gusev had some initial success despite the fact that he has the deadly combination of being an awful skater and being undersized/weak. He did flame out but certainly not as quickly as I predicted. Shipachyov just never got a legit chance, it was the weirdest situation ever. I think he would have succeeded and would have become a 50+ point guy if he had gotten a chance. Kovalchuk of course already proved himself before his comeback so he doesn’t apply.
In any event, I’m sure you realized when responding to my post that there aren’t many recent examples. Russians that develop at home for a number of years post-draft and find success in the KHL have had very consistent success when they come to the NHL.
Where I think the argument really fails for some of these posters (especially Atas2000) is that it is undoubtedly the case that many of the prospects that came to North America early and then failed would also have failed to make the NHL if they stayed and developed in Russia as well. It’s not as simple as “they came over early and failed and look at these guys that stayed and were successful”. That is ridiculous oversimplification and poor reasoning. Just like saying “look at Kucherov and Sergachev and Provorov, that proves that coming over early and playing CHL works”.