I am sure I will be the only one voting for him from now on, but I am taking Rafikov here. Sure, he may never come over (though maybe he will!), but I do think he has top 4 potential. Good skater, physical, moves the puck well, has decent offence, good defensively and seemed to have really good gap control, leadership abilities plus he likes to play with an edge and get under the opposing team's skin.
I don't really see anyone else on the list with a higher ceiling. Nodler is leading this round by a mile, but I am not really crazy about him. Maybe in his second season in the NCAA he will find himself with more opportunities, but 36G, 8pts and 2PIMS is underwhelming. Stats aren't everything, and as I said, it may have been more of a lack of opportunity than anything else. Yes, he apparently has leadership skills, but even John Ramage (who was a very strong leader) as a defensive D still put up more points in his first year in the NCAA.
I hope Nodler, Tulola, Koumontzis, and Sveningsson manage to make some solids steps in their development, but Rafikov for me right now. I do think that if Rafikov seemed more likely to come over, I would have started picking him maybe 10 spots higher.
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