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Leafs' Prospect/Marlies Discussion Thread!

Looked to me like Ritchie happened to find the puck in his skates and realized he was facing the wrong direction on the PP.

"Steals it and peels it!"
 



Man, "dominated the Russian MHL" is right.

Age 17: GP 54, G 24, A 31, Pts 55
Age 18: GP 40, G 20, A 31, Pts 51
Age 19: GP 22, G 13, A 16, Pts 29

Weird that they never gave him much of a shot and let him go, but excited to see how this translates to the AHL. And he's still a pretty young prospect. Doesn't turn 20 until August, so he'll be one of the rare teenaged AHLers for the rest of this season.

Side note: his now former MHL team has just about the best team name ever. "Sibirskie Snaipery Novosibirsk"
 
As a general rule, its smart to get your prospects out of the KHL system as fast as possible. They really do give zero fucks about young players with potential NHL futures.


Yeah, the only exceptions seem to be the guys that make it crystal clear when they're very young that they have no intention of signing an NHL contract or going to North America anytime soon, like Kaprizov.

Anyone else that they don't think is around for the long haul gets buried.
 
Yeah, the only exceptions seem to be the guys that make it crystal clear when they're very young that they have no intention of signing an NHL contract or going to North America anytime soon, like Kaprizov.

Anyone else that they don't think is around for the long haul gets buried.

I'm sure this has nothing at all to do with the overall decline in the quality of Russian prospects either...

20 yrs ago Russia was a talent factory. Its not even close to that today
 
yeah get these guys out of the KHL asap. even easier if you have a bunch of russian teammates here with you.

Even if Ovy has to start in the ECHL its better than he's under our direct control.
 
Russia went from developing speed and skill to trying to develop 3rd liners.

There is still the odd elite talent that comes through every few years, but most of their top prospects are north-south, power wingers (Amirov, Podkolzin, Kravtsov).
 
Top 25 & Under Russians

1) Kaprizov (24): 1.34ppg
2) Svechnikov (21): 1.00ppg
3) Gurianov (24): .49ppg
4) Provorov (25): .39ppg
5) Trenin (25): .34ppg
6) Podkolzin (20): .26ppg

and it falls significantly after that. 6 notable NHL players 25 and under, is all that Russia has produced recently and only 2 of them are particularly good.

Compare that to

Finland: Rantanen, Aho, Hintz, Lundell, Laine, Puljujarvi, Heiskeinen, Kapanen, Kotka, Kakko, Jokiharju
Sweden: Nylander, Bratt, Dahlin, Pettersen, Kempe, Andersson, Eriksson Ek, Forsling, Boqvist, Engvall, Hoglander, Lilly...and sweden has a huge group of NHL players (over 70 NHL regulars) with the vast majority under 30.

Even Switzerland ffs: Meier, Fiala, Hischier, Suter, Kurashev is comparable to this Russian generation.
 
Russia went from developing speed and skill to trying to develop 3rd liners.

I think their method of development has something to do with it. Kids start on the 4th line almost as a hard and firm rule and the kids stay buried there until the kid leaves or the parent club decides otherwise.
 
Yeah I won't complain if/when the Leafs stop drafting these Russians, particular with the higher picks. Hit rate just hasn't been there with them for years.
 
And its weird that a country that developed dmen like Gonchar, Zubov, Markov, Fetsiov 20-30 years ago, can't develop a dman to save their lives.

Yep, Provorov & Sergachev are probably the best Russian defenders at the moment, and both came over to play junior hockey in Canada.
 
Yeah I won't complain if/when the Leafs stop drafting these Russians, particular with the higher picks. Hit rate just hasn't been there with them for years.

I prefer Swedes and Finns personally. Much better domestic development programs. Sweden has a population 25-30% of ours and they have about 70 NHL regulars. That's not far off of our rate of developing NHL'ers at all.
 
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