Article: Is the KHL’s Animosity Toward American Prospects Hindering Yurov’s Development?

[Robert Brent]

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[Imyourhuckleberry]

I'm looking forward to seeing Scott Wheeler's writeup on Wild prospects to learn more. He's doing 1 team each day and so far has gone from #32 to #12 in his "NHL prospect pool rankings 2025" without mentioning the Wild.

I hadn't thought about it before, but the move to get Jiricek may have jumped the Wild's prospect pool up a few spots. Anxious to read his thoughts on Yurov and the rest of the Wild prospects.

[Citizen Strife]

Kaprizov might be getting surgery to fix the nagging injury, and miss up to six weeks. 

Can just ONE thing go right for this team, like ever?

Edited Tuesday at 05:05 PM by Citizen Strife

[MacGyver]

KHL teams are owned by the wealthy Russian oligarchs and the oligarchs toe the line for Putin. Putin has been vocal in the past about his dislike of Russian athletes coming to the west and getting wealthy. I'm surprised Putin didn't shut the pipeline down when they became banned from international play. I'm guessing all these Russian players in the N are having to send a kickback of their salary back to the motherland. 

I still wonder what all went on with Kaprizov during all the drama of trying to get back into the US a couple years ago. 

[FredJohnson]

1 hour ago, MacGyver said:

I still wonder what all went on with Kaprizov during all the drama of trying to get back into the US a couple years ago. 

Me too. 
‘Twas a big reason for KK97 dropping in the draft.

[mnfaninnc]

While there are probably politics involved, it also must be understood that wealthy Russian Oligarchs also are competitive. Metallurg is the defending champion and I think that puts the team in a little different category. I also think this team will want a repeat. 

SKA did the same thing to Khus, sending him also to Sochi. They limited his playing time that final year and then sent him to Sochi which sounds like the equivalent to Cleveland. But Metallurg hasn't done this to Yurov.

Perhaps he is playing on line 3, I thought from their stat sheet he was playing 2nd line C. He leads the team in SOGs. He's not really on their PP much and has 0 points. This is the biggest opportunity that Yurov is missing, PP time. 

Now, come playoffs, I would expect him to be elevated and be playing to win another Cup. He's in their top 6 in points, leads SOGs by a wide margin, and the whole team doesn't have huge point producers. 5 guys have double digit goals, 2 with 12 and 3 with 10. 

Where I'd say that Yurov is having poor luck is that his shooting% is too low and nobody is cashing in on his rebounds. His FO% is 48.2. 

Boy, wouldn't it be great if Yurov's contract was canceled in Metallurg and we could pick him up on an ELC right away? That would help soften the blow. SKA might do such a thing, I just don't think Metallurg will. 

[1Brotherbill]

12 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I'm looking forward to seeing Scott Wheeler's writeup on Wild prospects to learn more. He's doing 1 team each day and so far has gone from #32 to #12 in his "NHL prospect pool rankings 2025" without mentioning the Wild.

I hadn't thought about it before, but the move to get Jiricek may have jumped the Wild's prospect pool up a few spots. Anxious to read his thoughts on Yurov and the rest of the Wild prospects.

Nice to have a lot of prospects and to be rated high.  However, when you look at it there are some holes in the stable of prospects.

Yurov has a lot of speculation about him this year.  Is it being iced out or is he just not playing well.  We don't know.  I would think that if he was playing as well as last year he would be scoring like last year.

Strammel is playing well on the number one team in college hockey.  But we can't forget last year and the lack of production.  Once again if he was good enough to get top six minutes last year he would have gotten top six minutes. 

Hiedt putting up points like normal.  But we have seen that before a lot.  He isn't good enough to make the Canadian national team.  And he isn't good enough to make the NHL.  Since he is too young to play in Iowa we don't know how good he can be. 

Ohgren seems like he can be good in the NHL but the Wild are in a chaotic time right now and we don't know if he is good or not.

Wallstedt lost a lot of shine off his HOF projected career.  Some injuries and mental health issues have put a lot of questions on his career.  

Kumpulainen is much like Hiedt.  The Wild would like to have him in Iowa but he isn't old enough to be there.  He was good enough to make the national team, so there is that.  At least he is playing against older players. 

When it is all said and done if the Wild's deep prospect pool was filled with elite talent that elite talent would be in St. Paul.  A lot of the prospects can't break the NHL lineup. 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

8 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Hiedt putting up points like normal.  But we have seen that before a lot.  He isn't good enough to make the Canadian national team.  And he isn't good enough to make the NHL.  Since he is too young to play in Iowa we don't know how good he can be.

Coming from a Canadian, the hockey Canada organization is full of politics. Our team selection was horrendous this year, leaving out the top scorer in the OHL (Misa) and the second scoring prospect in the WHL (Cristall). They also decided to bring zero offensive defensemen and a bunch of other head scratchers from the coaching staff. That being said, Heidt was far from the only high profile prospect left at home for no apparently reason anyone could explain. This included Hage, Lardis, Sennecke and Parekh. Both the WHL and the QMJHL were snubbed by an OHL coach.

Not saying Heidt will be a smash hit, but I wouldn't put too much meaning on the fact he didn't make the team.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

9 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

When it is all said and done if the Wild's deep prospect pool was filled with elite talent that elite talent would be in St. Paul.  A lot of the prospects can't break the NHL lineup. 

There are about 5 teams in the Western Conference with guys under 21 on them, and a majority of those teams aren't trying to win anything this season. I don't think these prospects not playing on NHL ice is nearly as damning as you suggest.

Half the teams in the East also do not have players under 21, and some of the teams that do are barely playing the 20 year olds. Teams drafting outside of the top 10 often don't have teenagers playing for them.

Buium, Jiricek, and Yurov are still strong prospects and Wallstedt likely will be again once he gets healthy(mind and body).

I'll share some tidbits from the Athletic once they get to the Wild. Heidt still needs to add strength and might be a bit of a high end AHLer, but it's possible he'll be quite a bit better than that once he's fully developed closer to his mid-20s. Heidt is only 19 and Rossi has progressed quite a bit in the 22-23 age range.

[Up North Guy]

17 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Strammel is playing well on the number one team in college hockey.  But we can't forget last year and the lack of production.  Once again if he was good enough to get top six minutes last year he would have gotten top six minutes. 

Wisconsin got a new coach from Mankato last year and he brought in a lot of his Mankato players. Stramel and other Wisconsin players were relegated to the 3rd or 4th line. Stramel did not respond well to that and played poorly. He is a year older (still young though) and maybe has matured some in addition to getting a coach who trusts him and coaches him. He is having a very good year and is helping to drive the Sparty's. 

[Up North Guy]

17 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Wallstedt lost a lot of shine off his HOF projected career.  Some injuries and mental health issues have put a lot of questions on his career.  

The Wall looks to be healthy again and seems to be regaining his touch. Hopefully he completes the turn around.

[1Brotherbill]

11 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

There are about 5 teams in the Western Conference with guys under 21 on them, and a majority of those teams aren't trying to win anything this season. I don't think these prospects not playing on NHL ice is nearly as damning as you suggest.

Half the teams in the East also do not have players under 21, and some of the teams that do are barely playing the 20 year olds. Teams drafting outside of the top 10 often don't have teenagers playing for them.

Buium, Jiricek, and Yurov are still strong prospects and Wallstedt likely will be again once he gets healthy(mind and body).

I'll share some tidbits from the Athletic once they get to the Wild. Heidt still needs to add strength and might be a bit of a high end AHLer, but it's possible he'll be quite a bit better than that once he's fully developed closer to his mid-20s. Heidt is only 19 and Rossi has progressed quite a bit in the 22-23 age range.

So, they aren't better than Trenin, Lauko, Shore, Gaunce etc.  We aren't even talking about Gaudreau or Hartman.  

If you can't score twenty points in the NHL are you even considered elite?

 

[1Brotherbill]

3 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

Wisconsin got a new coach from Mankato last year and he brought in a lot of his Mankato players. Stramel and other Wisconsin players were relegated to the 3rd or 4th line. Stramel did not respond well to that and played poorly. He is a year older (still young though) and maybe has matured some in addition to getting a coach who trusts him and coaches him. He is having a very good year and is helping to drive the Sparty's. 

So, the players brought over from Mankato by Hastings were all first round talent and will be in the NHL in top 6 positions?

[Imyourhuckleberry]

12 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

 

If you can't score twenty points in the NHL are you even considered elite?

It varies. Kaprizov didn't score a single point in the NHL before he was 23. Is he elite?

[Imyourhuckleberry]

12 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

So, the players brought over from Mankato by Hastings were all first round talent and will be in the NHL in top 6 positions?

No, but Stramel is actually playing a little bit like a bottom 6 NHL player now at least. I was afraid he wouldn't even approach Jordan Greenway levels of NHL ability, but he might be moving in that direction now.

He will need at least another developmental year. Stramel may get himself ready for a depth role at the NHL level few years down the road.