Russia might not be known for their defensemen, but a young group of intriguing NHL prospects hopes to change that.
If there is one thing that Russia is known for amongst the NHL, it is their talented group of forwards. Russia has produced some of the top forwards in the NHL today with the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Nikita Kucherov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and many more, including some NHL prospects. They have also produced some of the NHL’s best goaltenders like Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
One thing, however, Russia is not as well-known for in the hockey world are defensemen. Although they do have some strong defenseman, they are definitely not amongst the leagues best. Currently, in the NHL, the top Russian blueliners are Ivan Provorov, Mikhail Sergachev, and Dmitry Orlov. Nikita Zaitsev and Nikita Zadorov are also among the best Russian defenders in the NHL today, but this is largely because Russia is so thin on the blueline
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Putting this into perspective, imagine if the World Cup of Hockey were to occur tomorrow and team Canada was playing Team Russia. It would be a great matchup filled with a high degree of intensity. The offense would be elite on both sides as well as the goaltending, but the defense would be far off in terms of skill.
A team of NHL players from Russia would potentially line up on the blue-line with Provorov, Sergachec, Orlov, Zaitsez, Zadorov, and Dmitry Kulikov. Meanwhile, Canada could potentially counter with the likes of Drew Doughty, P.K. Subban, Brent Burns, Kris Letang, Morgan Reilly, and Dougie Hamilton.
This probably would not be the exact roster for team Canada, but it is extremely similar to what the skill level would be compared to Russia’s blue-line. If you look at prospects there is not really a big difference either. Teams like Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S. have many skilled defensive prospects and while Russia does have some, they do not have nearly the same extent of defensive prospects that have a shot of making it to the NHL.
Russia continues to produce forwards and goaltenders that have a strong chance of making it to the NHL but the same cannot be said about their defencemen. As it stands right now there are some talented defencemen from Russia who will have a shot at cracking the NHL but it does not yet look like they will be able to compete with Canada in terms of defense any time soon.
The question now is, what can we expect to see on Russia’s blue-line in regards to NHL players? Will Russia have to result on having defenceman from other leagues like the KHL play for them in world tournaments, or will there be enough skilled Russian NHL blue-liners to avoid having Team Russia to call up KHLers to play in tournaments such as the World Cup Of Hockey and the World Championships?
Here’s a look at some young Russian defensemen who could make an impact in the NHL. All the players listed are either NHL drafted prospects or draft-eligible prospects for the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.