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By Robert Brent -
As Hockey Wilderness reaches the end of its top-10 prospects countdown, we're discussing players who should be significant contributors to the Minnesota Wild soon. However, Danila Yurov won’t debut this season. Yurov re-signed with his KHL club for one more year in 2024-25, but there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about the young Russian forward.
Yurov has a well-rounded game, with solid contributions in just about every facet of the sport. The center is a better-than-average defender, especially for his age, and produces notable offensive output for Metalurg Magnitogorsk.
With no apparent weaknesses and on the verge of making his NHL debut, Yurov ranks second on Hockey Wilderness’s top-10 prospects countdown. Yurov and Zeev Buium received the same number of points in our writer's survey, but Yurov finished No. 2 based on receiving more first-place votes (2-to-1).
Yurov had a historic KHL Season
Danila Yurov has been an exciting prospect for the Wild since they drafted him. However, he fell to Minnesota at 24th overall in the 2022 draft, even though many experts project him as a bubble top-10 pick.
Excitement for Yurov reached a fever pitch last year when he exploded for the most points by a KHL player 20 years old or younger. The forward's 49 points catapulted him ahead of players with notable NHL careers, like Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Kirill Kaprizov, Pavel Buchnevich, and Artemi Panarin. Yurov's 21-goal performance ranked him third in the same category.
People have discussed the historical significance of Yurov's season at length, but it's also important to note how that contributed to his team. The right wing from Chelyabinsk’s offense was far from empty points. He led Metallurg Magnitogorsk to a Gagarin Cup victory.
Young players contributing on that level are rare in the KHL, especially NHL draft picks. Many KHL teams don't feel the need to give minutes to players who will eventually leave the team. For example, Matvei Michkov struggled to find minutes with SKA St. Petersburg as a young player and had to go on loan to HC Sochi to ply his trade. That is to say, the level at which Magnitogorsk relied on Yurov is incredibly rare.
Another cause for excitement is Yurov's switch from winger to center. The Wild drafted the young forward when he primarily played right wing. He has since developed into a player who can play in the center of the ice. Moving to center accentuated his defensive diligence and ability to play with the puck. Yurov was already a valuable prospect for Minnesota but made himself even more valuable by playing the pivot.
Excitement surrounds Danila Yurov after a historic KHL season, but there's more reason for enthusiasm than what shows up on a box score sheet.
Examining Yurov's toolbox
As mentioned, the most striking part of Yurov's game is that he has few weaknesses. Many top NHL prospects have a couple of elite tools but have areas of their game that need work. On the other hand, Yurov is a generalist. Two of the best prospect writers, Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman, echo this statement regarding Yurov's profile.
"If you were to fill up two buckets with his tools (one for the strengths, one for the weaknesses) and place them on a scale,” Wheeler wrote regarding Yurov, “the bucket with his strengths in it would be overflowing, and the one with his weaknesses would be near empty."
Pronman concurred with this assessment in his recent Wild prospect rankings. Pronman ranked prospects based on skating, puck skills, hockey sense, compete level, and shot talent. In those rankings, Pronman ranked Yurov as at least "NHL average" in every category.
Yurov has also earned praise for his defensive ability. He isn't showing two-way play that projects him as a future Selke winner, but he does enough for coaches to trust him in his own end. He puts effort into the backcheck and is responsible in the neutral zone. Many young players struggle on defense when given so much offensive responsibility, but Yurov has had no such issues. The forward seems to take pride in this part of his game.
"I feel like the defensive side of my game has improved,” Yurov said during a Q&A with the Athletic when a reader asked what aspects of his game have grown the most since being drafted. “I've also started to realize you need to play not only with the puck but also without it."
While a versatile approach means that Yurov has no obvious weaknesses, he also seems to lack that one standout trait. His puck skills make him slippery offensively, and he has an above-average shot. Still, there's nothing that jumps off the page. That isn't necessarily a bad thing; it just means that it may take some time for Yurov to find his niche in the lineup if none of his traits develop into elite territory.
NHL projections
It's easy to get excited about a high-level prospect, especially after Yurov's historic season in the KHL. You can excuse the Wild faithful for dreaming of a Rossi-Yurov one-two punch as the top two centers on the future Stanley Cup-winning team. Yurov is an elite prospect, but those dreams may be premature. Let's talk about a realistic projection.
In Scott Wheeler's prospect ranking, Yurov is ranked 30th overall (10th highest center). That puts him in the same tier as other name-value prospects like Lane Hutson, Shane Wright, Rutger McGroarty, and Jimmy Snuggerud. Wheeler reserves that tier of prospect for players who are expected to develop into the top half of the lineup players but are not guaranteed all-stars. Corey Pronman's ranking also mirrors this opinion, with Yurov ranked as a "bubble top and middle of the lineup player."
Many Wild fans have higher hopes for Yurov. Still, even with that projection, he's an incredibly valuable asset to the Wild. The team has a need at center, and getting a player who is likely to be a top-six pivot man gives reason for enthusiasm.
At his ceiling, Yurov could join the KHL players he's outperformed. His plus shot and puck handling give him the potential to be a high-level goal scorer in the NHL. If Minnesota drafted a 30-goal, 60-point player who plays a bit of defense, he'll be more than worthy of his No. 2 rank on Hockey Wilderness' top-10 prospect list.
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