[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

What's with the love for Ryankin? Supposedly his shot is ok, he isn't a great skater, and his vision on the ice is just ok.

According to who?

It wasn’t long ago Ivan Ryabkin was being talked about with the same reverence as Matvei Michkov and Ivan Demidov. His ability to create offence was unmatched; as a 16-year-old, he set a record with 58 points in 44 games in the MHL, beating Michkov by two points. He moved the puck like it was on a string, moving it in and around traffic, and showed incredible awareness, finding passing lanes through several bodies to put it neatly on the stick of a teammate. Add in his ability to play a more physical game than either of his predecessors, and his draft season looked like it would be one for the record books.

However, two things are immediately clear after his first couple of months in North America. There’s no questioning his ability to move the puck. Ryabkin is a master of the slow game. He waits for the perfect opportunity to draw a player in, then uses a flourish of dekes and deception to get around the attacker. When protecting the puck, he uses his size and strength well to create space and maintain possession. He also has a great selection of shots, from a hard accurate wrister to a dangerous backhand. Few players in the 2025 Draft class have as much offensive skill as Ryabkin.

The rest of Ryabkin’s game is far less refined. While playing in Russia, he had all the time and space to get up to speed and dart around opponents, but the USHL is a far more defensive league and he hasn’t been able to reach his top speed as often. It doesn’t help that he isn’t the strongest skater and has a choppy stride, which leaves him relying on his edges to shift positions. The same issue showed up in the KHL, where he was frequently outpaced by everyone else on the ice.

SOURCE: https://thehockeywriters.com/ivan-ry...spect-profile/

I think this is why posters (myself included) find him very intriguing. If a team buys low (for example, late in the first round) and invests the time to develop him, maybe he improves his skating (hello, Danielle Fujita!) and his engagement, and all of a sudden you have a 1C.