Lost Russians: Winnipeg Jets

 

 

(Editors Note: Andrey Osadchenko is the senior Russian Correspondent at the Nations Network. He writes regularly in Russian at allhockey.ru, and has a series of web videos called "Joining the Rush" with Steve Dangle. Today Andrey catches up with some of the former Russian-born draft picks of the Jets organization. The piece underscores why drafting Russian-born players has gone somewhat out of style; simply put, it’s a risky proposition.)

Technically the Jets are a very young organization and almost every project they are stuck with isn’t their fault but the Thrashers’. And while one can fairly point out that the Georgia-based team made it to the play-offs only once in their history, they still managed to pick arguably the best Russian player in the league a decade ago – Ilya Kovalchuk.

However, along with Kovy the Thrashers made a few questionable decisions when it came to his compatriots. Let’s have a look on their Ruskies List.

Thrashers drafted him shortly after 1999 World Juniors that Team Russia won. Ironically enough, the tournament was held in Winnipeg. As for Dobryshkin, he scored 5 goals and 7 points in 7 games. Not a bad guy to pick in the 6th round, eh? Or so it seemed.

Right after the World Juniors Dobryshkin signed with Ak Bars – one of the best clubs in the RSL. He was unable to compete with more experienced players for a spot on in the Top-6 and his productivity wasn’t great at all. Over the next few years he bounced between quite a few teams, but the points production simply wasn’t his biggest asset.

His biggest success was in 2002/03 when he managed to score 19 goals and 26 points in 49 regular season games for Severstal. Later on he picked up 5+2=7 points in 12 play-off games. Dobryshkin currently plays for one the most ambitious KHL clubs – Dynamo Moscow.

Is there a chance he would come over to play in North America? Absolutely none. When you’re 32 the last thing you want in your life is a big change with a vague outcome.

Michael Leighton, Martin Erat, Tom Kostopoulos, Henrik Zetterberg, Radim Vrbata, Garnet Exelby, George Parros, Radek Martinek, Douglas Murray.

It looked like the Thrashers got a steal in the 7th round. A Russian centre who is able to play physical? Is there anything better? The idea was there. The scouting, however, was poor.

After having played for Team Russia at the U18 IIHF World Championship Loginov played 16 games and scored 2 goals in the RSL for his hometown team – Ak Bars. Not too shabby for an 18-year-old. Unfortunately, that was the biggest season of his career so far.

He was unable to get a permanent spot on Ak Bars’ roster and went on playing in a second tier Russian league. 2 years ago he signed in Kazakhstan with Ertis Pavlodar. Should the Jets even bother calling him up for a try-out?

Joe Pavelski, Kyle Brodziak, Jeremy Williams, Dustin Byfuglien, Shane O’Brien, Matt Moulson, Tanner Glass, Jaroslav Halak.

Ok, this kid doesn’t exactly fall under the category of the lost draftpicks. After all, he bought out his KHL contract a few seasons ago, came to play in North America and was hands down terrific. Giving how big his body is, his willingness to build his career on this side of the Atlantic and his recent signing with the Jets, it wouldn’t come as a big surprise if he’s going to play in Winnipeg.

While he’s still obviously a young player, Telgin has already shown some signs of him being NHL-bound. He also scored for the Jets earlier this pre-season. The only problem that might spring up here is if one of the KHL clubs offers him big rubles to come back home. Money and family against the dream. Tough choice.

Teemu Pulkkinen, Philipp Grubauer, Rob Flick, Troy Rutkowski, Petr Mrazek, Maxim Chudinov.

Rumours about Nikulin coming over to play overseas spring up almost every summer. It has been reported that he was unbelievably close to signing with the Thrashers 2 years ago. However, having thought about the pros and cons, Ilya decided to stay in Russia.

One of the major factors in this decision was the fact that he is married and has kids. It has to be mentioned, though, that he is an NHL-calibre player for sure. If the Jets wanted to bring somebody from Europe to their blue line – Nikulin is definitely the guy. He is a 2-time RSL, KHL and IIHF World Championship winner. He’s got everything you want out of your d-man – skill, size, shot, positioning.

Should the Jets try to bring him over? They might try, but Ilya has some serious reasons to play in Russia.

Nick Schultz, Brad Winchester, Tomas Kopecky, Kurtis Foster, Ilya Bryzgalov, Jarret Stoll, Andreas Lilja, Antoine Vermette, Paul Martin, Kurt Sauer, Michael Rupp, Niclas Wallin, Lubomir Visnovsky, John-Michael Liles, Travis Moen, Darcy Hordichuk.