Starting lineups: will the Russians be selected in the first round of the NHL draft

The next NHL draft will be held in Los Angeles on June 27-28. For the first time in the league's history, the ceremony will be held in a decentralized manner, similar to the NFL football, NBA basketball, and MLB baseball. Now the clubs will choose the juniors sitting in their offices. Izvestia talks about the main questions that the upcoming draft should answer.

How much will Ryabkin fall?

Last summer, no one had any doubts that Ivan Ryabkin would leave in the first round of the draft. Moreover, most analysts called him a contender for getting into the top 10. But the pupil of Crystal Balakovo and CSKA did everything to disappoint the scouts and managers during the season with his strange attitude to business, problems with excess weight and the scandal with Dynamo.

The hockey skills and makings of the center, who dominated the MHL a year ago, are beyond doubt. He has all the tools to become a prominent figure in the NHL. But naked talent alone is not enough to play in the best league in the world. Ivan's attitude to his own body and the advice of coaches who want him to get better make you wonder if he will follow the path of Kirill Kabanov, another Russian prodigy who refused to change and behaved quite arrogantly.

Now no one is surprised that Ryabkin, in all reputable forecasts, fell in the middle of the second round. However, it's not too late to get your head around it. A serious fall down will not be a disaster. Perhaps it is the collapse of quotations that will force Ivan to reconsider his approach to business.

Will Zharovsky leave in the first round?

Now it seems somewhat strange that the Russian media discussed Ryabkin's problem all season, but did not notice Alexander Zharovsky until he made his debut for Salavat Yulaev in the playoffs. But an extremely technical 18-year-old from Klin got his chance in Viktor Kozlov's team due to legionnaires' injuries and started to benefit Ufa residents almost from scratch, making a huge impression on everyone.

A year ago, Rinat Bashirov was not afraid to pay Podolsk Horse 15 million rubles at once for the most talented winger with exceptional hockey intelligence. But who can say now that Zharovsky, who has every chance of becoming an important figure in the slimmed-down Salavat Yulaev next season, was not worth the money?

Right now, Dan Milstein's client is listed in the first half of the second round. However, it's easy to imagine how one of the clubs would risk spending the first pick on him and make him the first Russian in the draft.

Which of the Russian "late bloomers" will they pay attention to?

Our hockey players have known one simple thing for quite a long time. Just because you weren't selected at 18 doesn't mean you won't get drafted in the next couple of years. The examples of Egor Chinakhov, Ilya Nabokov, Bogdan Konyushkov and Daniil Pylenkov are too fresh in my memory. The main thing is not to give up and continue to work, proving your worth.

Last season in the KHL there were no truly sensational and, most importantly, unoccupied "late bloomers" for the NHL. Most of the statistical ranking leaders in the U-20 category have already been booked by various North American clubs. However, the hyper-attacking defender Magomed Sharakanov, who shone on loan at Lada, his colleague Artyom Shchuchinov, who proved himself great at Andrei Kozyrev at Severstal, goalkeeper Yaroslav Kuzmenko, without whom it is impossible to imagine the victory of the Spartak youth team in the Kharlamov Cup, as well as the talented Yaroslavl player Roman, are still available for the draft. Lutzev.

Given the not-so-great crop of hockey players born in 2007, some of the "overgrown" ones will surely interest overseas managers and end up on Enchaelovsky Prospekt after the second day of the distributor.

Who will be number one?

A couple of years ago, the 2025 draft class was called potentially one of the weakest in the last ten years. Even then, there was no wide scattering of truly talented guys on the lists of available players, for whom there would be a real fight between the teams. Now, most analysts do not go back on their words and consider the year of birth 2007 to be the year of poor harvest for the entire world community to be the pivotal year for the upcoming fair. That's why the forecasts for the first number and the layout in the top 5 vary from rating to rating.

While some give the championship to the incredibly versatile Canadian defender Matthew Schaefer, who missed most of the season due to a broken collarbone and survived the death of his mother due to breast cancer, others believe that the Islanders should spend their starting rush on Michael Misa, a striker who three years ago received exceptional status in the Ontario Junior League. but not making the same impression as Connor Bedard.

Because of their backs, the figure of James Hagens may appear — the guy who broke Nikita Kucherov's record for points at the World Cup a year ago, but played his pre-draft year in the NCAA very controversially, compared to other recent top student hockey players.

However, not the strongest average level of hockey players and the absence of a large number of bright and exceptional people favor increased unpredictability on the first day of the ceremony. Hardly anyone can say with absolute certainty what the composition of the top 10 will be and how the places will be distributed within it.

Will the Belarusian hockey player be chosen for the tenth year in a row?

Belarusian hockey is progressing rapidly — the youth there are highly appreciated now and overseas. At least this spring, our neighbors can be represented in the draft by at least one player for the 10th consecutive season.

Unlike last year, no talents of Artem Levshunov's level are expected among Belarusians this time. For example, the overall center Yaroslav Bryzgalov, who moved to the American USHL last summer and enrolled in one of the colleges in Massachusetts, has a good chance to leave in the late rounds, where he will begin his studies only after a season.

The main representative of the fraternal republic should be 19-year-old Egor Borikov, whom the scouts and managers did not pay attention to in the previous two drafts. Last season, the physically strong extreme striker became one of the key players of Dinamo Minsk and produced an amazing playoff, repeating Evgeny Kuznetsov's record (7) for goals for players under 20 years of age. Now the guy from Zhlobin is listed in various ratings at the level of the fourth or fifth rounds, and for sure this time the North American experts will not pass him by.