Its pointless to think about future lines too much bc who knows but just now thinking about an Ohgren / Ek / Khusnutdinov line.
With Ek and Ohgren (if he turns out as expected) you have two corsi guys that can really control the puck and keep the team in the offensive zone and can finish goals pretty well but aren’t the greatest puck carriers. They’re guys that are typically trying to get the puck off their stick as soon as they have it. That’s where khusnutdinov could be the playmaker and primary puck carrier for the line. He’s (hopefully) a pretty good forechecker in his own right too and playing with a pair of larger/physical forwards would minimize his smaller size being exploited in board battles or within the d-zone generally.
For now tho with the team as presently constructed and with Johansson returning from injury I’d have the lines as:
Kaprizov / Ek / Boldy (same)
Zucc / Rossi / Hartman (same)
Johansson / Khusnutdinov / Foligno
Shaw / Gaudreau / Lucchini – Letteri – Beckman
Jayteedub18
Watching him last year on SKA was, I think, very indicative of how he can translate and also why I wish he’d come over to play a year in Iowa this season. Last year on a line with players with NHL experience (albeit limited success) in Dimitrij Jaskin and Nikita Gusev he put up over 40 points. Hence why in this video the commentary highlights his facilitating and calls out his lack of shooting. It was a poor offensive play for him to shoot with two top 10 point scorers in the KHL. Playing with playmakers who can create space and offense make me very excited to see him play with someone like a Kaprizov and/or Zuccarello. He can definitely give us something resembling more of the historic notion of soviet hockey and I think he could be a really fun wrinkle to a stalling special teams unit.
When he lost gusev and they tried to Russia him into a bottom 6 role due to his contract status and shipped him to Sochi to play with a lesser talent pool you saw him struggle playing with people who didn’t see the ice the same way. I think the drawback for him is id anticipate goal scoring will take him a while to consistently deliver at the NHL level- but there’s a lot there. I think he’ll impact instantly in some way on this team.
DarkStanza
This is a great video! Thanks
You really get a sense of the type of player he can be.
7 Comments
That slap shot stick to the face 😬
Can’t help but feel like he looks like Rossi
Definitely can skate.
New Zuccarello replacement just dropped
Its pointless to think about future lines too much bc who knows but just now thinking about an Ohgren / Ek / Khusnutdinov line.
With Ek and Ohgren (if he turns out as expected) you have two corsi guys that can really control the puck and keep the team in the offensive zone and can finish goals pretty well but aren’t the greatest puck carriers. They’re guys that are typically trying to get the puck off their stick as soon as they have it. That’s where khusnutdinov could be the playmaker and primary puck carrier for the line. He’s (hopefully) a pretty good forechecker in his own right too and playing with a pair of larger/physical forwards would minimize his smaller size being exploited in board battles or within the d-zone generally.
For now tho with the team as presently constructed and with Johansson returning from injury I’d have the lines as:
Kaprizov / Ek / Boldy (same)
Zucc / Rossi / Hartman (same)
Johansson / Khusnutdinov / Foligno
Shaw / Gaudreau / Lucchini – Letteri – Beckman
Watching him last year on SKA was, I think, very indicative of how he can translate and also why I wish he’d come over to play a year in Iowa this season. Last year on a line with players with NHL experience (albeit limited success) in Dimitrij Jaskin and Nikita Gusev he put up over 40 points. Hence why in this video the commentary highlights his facilitating and calls out his lack of shooting. It was a poor offensive play for him to shoot with two top 10 point scorers in the KHL. Playing with playmakers who can create space and offense make me very excited to see him play with someone like a Kaprizov and/or Zuccarello. He can definitely give us something resembling more of the historic notion of soviet hockey and I think he could be a really fun wrinkle to a stalling special teams unit.
When he lost gusev and they tried to Russia him into a bottom 6 role due to his contract status and shipped him to Sochi to play with a lesser talent pool you saw him struggle playing with people who didn’t see the ice the same way. I think the drawback for him is id anticipate goal scoring will take him a while to consistently deliver at the NHL level- but there’s a lot there. I think he’ll impact instantly in some way on this team.
This is a great video! Thanks
You really get a sense of the type of player he can be.