Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Diamond in the rough: Dmitri Ovchinnikov.
His NHLe-1 was nothing, but his NHLe-0 is up to 29 (HockeyProspecting.com). If we have a 3rd round pick come draft time, I'd take him. As is, I'll hope he's there at 96th. Future Considerations has him at 172nd.
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This is a really good find. The big thing here is that he's actually a late birthday too, so his D-1 production should be normalized.
He's born August 19, 2002, which means he was 17 his entire draft season.
Compare that to a guy like Connor Zary who was 10 days from being in the 2019 draft and is 11 months older (September 25 2001).
Zary had NHLe of 26 and 37, Ovchinnikov has NHLe of 5 and 29.
Or fellow russian Amirov who is born October 2nd 2001, is 10 1/2 months older, and is seen as a 1st rounder. His NHLe was 24 in the same league for his 17 year old season, and 32 for his 18 year old season. Ovchinnikov's production in the NHL is actually more impressive than Amirov.
If he was born a month later and is available in the 2021 draft, he's probably looked at as a 1st rounder or at least 2nd rounder based on production. Honestly based on production as young draft eligible players I'd be fine looking at both Pashin and Ovchinnikov who both had less impressive draft -1 seasons when they were 16 for the full year, but great draft years as 17 year olds.