Quote:
Originally Posted by robaur
For every Radulov, there is Ovechkin, Malkin, Tarasenko.
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And for every Malkin/Tarasenko/Ovechkin there is a Zherdev, Filatov, Alexeev, Svitov, Vorobiev, Yakubov (not Yakupov), Smirnov, Krykov, Chistov, Knyazev, Saprykin, Shvidki, Vishnevsky, Radulov
If you aren't familiar with those guys they are all Russian top 15 picks in the last 15 years. To be fair a lot of them are from the '98-'2002 range which included some bad draft years. Later on Russians started being drafted later due to the lack of a transfer agreement.
Since I've been following the draft closely there is a long history of Russian busts that far outweigh in number the ones who actually turned out. That history has me extremely, extremely wary of taking a Russian in the top 15.
The success of Malkin/Ovechkin who were much more highly touted than Nichuskin does not mean Nichuskin is not one of the riskiest picks due to go in the top 10 this year.
Obviously he's got a huge upside. But the Russian factor cannot be ignored. It is too easy for them to drop everything and make big bucks in their home country when the going gets tough. And unlike the Russians drafted out of the CHL, this guy hasn't shown that getting to the NHL is his top priority, nor has he started his cultural transition early like they have.
Risky, risky, risky. Its not like guys like Monahan, Lindholm and Nurse don't have high upsides. I'd rather take one of them than roll the dice with a talent Russian.