Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezio
Will be interesting to see how Russia manages their roster. I thought last Olympics they made a huge blunder by excluding younger talent like Kulikov from the team and instead put in KHL journeymen.
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They only dressed like 3 or 4 guys who haven't played in the NHL.
And those were guys like Ilya Nikulin, who was a 31st overall NHL draft pick, and is a franchise defender in the KHL. He's not a "KHL journeyman", he's "an Olympic calibre player that saw more ice time than NHL regulars like Tyutin, Volchenkov, and Grebeshkov, and is not even comparable to some 18 year old kid who had put up all of about 10 points in the NHL at that time".
Just because you don't know who they are, doesn't mean the KHL guys were 'blunders'.
(Edited to add: Just checked, and in 2010 Nikulin scored more points as a defenceman in the KHL than Maxim Afinogenov did coming off a 24 goal 61 point NHL season. He also would have led several KHL teams in scoring.)