Jets Sign Ivan Telegin
12 years ago
Yesterday, the Winnipeg Jets announced that they had agreed to terms with prospect Ivan Telegin. Aside from the fact that Telegin was a fourth-round pick of the Thrashers one season ago, and that he’s spent the last two years in the OHL, what do we know about him?
Scouting Reports
While most imports tend to pick up steam over the course of a season, Telegin has done the opposite. He exploded out of the gate and looked like a really solid player whose size and skill combination made him someone to watch. But since struggling at the World Juniors and then getting injured, Telegin has not been the same player. Even through February, since returning from injury, he’s got only 4 points in 9 games. The forward who once looked immovable in front of the net and whose size and speed made him tough to handle, now looks tentative and unimpressive. Telegin will need to regain his earlier season form if he wants to get back in the hunt for a top 60 draft position. With Saginaw competing for the playoffs, they really need him to regain that form too.
a tad overlooked on this space has been the play of Russian center Ivan Telegin, who was mentioned in a November interview with Kyle Woodlief of Red Line Report here as one of the year’s best surprises in the early going. At 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Telegin has prototypical size for a guy who plays up the middle, and last year, Woodlief said that the knock on Telegin was a lack of finishing skills. He was solid this season for the Saginaw Spirit, finding the back of the net 26 times for a 44-point total in 51 games. He’s a very good skater with the vision and instincts to be an offensive performer, but admittedly, he cooled off considerably after a hot start, and didn’t have a very good playoffs, with only a goal and an assist in six games.
Probably the biggest surprise so far has been the play of another Russian in the OHL: Saginaw’s Ivan Telegin (C- 28th), who, coming into the season was someone we saw as someone who had the tools, but lacked the scoring and finish to be a top-six kind of forward. We saw him last year in Russia, and we liked his skills except for the fact that he just couldn’t seem to finish, so the question was- is he more of a third-line checking guy?
Summary:
- Great size
- Good skating ability
- Decent vision
- Questionable finishing skills
The Numbers
For the most part, the numbers Telegin has put up in the OHL tend to reflect the scouting reports. His goal-scoring totals simply haven’t been all that good in the OHL, and they dipped this year – which was to be expected, given that he scored 18 goals in his first 25 games in 2009-10 and just eight over his final 26 games. I think we can safely agree with Woodlief at this point that Telegin isn’t likely to be a be a big goal-scorer at the NHL level.
That said, Telegin’s covering his draft number offensively. Scott Reynolds breaks down draft classes by offensive production over at The Copper & Blue, and found that Telegin was the 65th forward drafted and the 56th-highest scorer in his draft class (using NHL equivalencies to calculate between leagues).
In other words, Telegin’s on track offensively, but he probably isn’t going to be a scoring star. I think it makes great sense for the Jets to get him under contract: he’s a big centre who skates well and contributes enough offense to be an NHL depth player at some point.
Recent articles from Jonathan Willis
