The Skinny on Nikolai Kulemin 2008 style
Posted 9:42 PM ET | Comments 0
How good of an NHL player will he be? Who knows but I'm sick and tired of people looking looking at www.hockeysfuture.com or www.russianprospects.com to find scouting reports that are 3 years old thinking that thats all the player could offer. I believe a year a go Anton Stralman was listed as i believe a 6.0 B or C which is a bottom pairing being the ceiling of his potential. Now for those of you who dont understand this take a quick look at this link it explains it pretty clearly: http://www.hockeysfuture.com/playerprojections/
Now however if you look at his ranking its an 8.0 B meaning they believe he will be a top pairing defensemen. However you will notice that they have not updated the talent analysis or the future. Over the last two years of monitoring this site ive never seen it change. The rankings however change every year it seems. Nikolai kulemin was listed as a 7.0 B when the talent analysis was written which has risen to a 8.0B. This is what Howard Berger was referring to in his blog that he just posted. Which unfortunately was just a quick scan of the internet for the most negative and ridiculously positive things said about Nikolai. Nothing realistic on either side. The russian prospects page was from before he was even drafted. These are scouting reports of a very raw prospect and really not much of a reflection of what he is today. From the youtube videos and interviews with his coaches I gather he is fast physical and appears to have pretty good hands. So am I a little excited? Heck yea I am and I believe most fans from different teams would be. Am I saying hes the next Sundin or savior of the leafs? Nope but I am allowed to hope he is aren't I?
The updated thoughts from the scouts seem to be the same. He has the ability to be a top line player or just a very good third liner. There is no doubt he has the potential so why wouldn't everyone be excited or at least curious to see what he can do?
Now however if you look at his ranking its an 8.0 B meaning they believe he will be a top pairing defensemen. However you will notice that they have not updated the talent analysis or the future. Over the last two years of monitoring this site ive never seen it change. The rankings however change every year it seems. Nikolai kulemin was listed as a 7.0 B when the talent analysis was written which has risen to a 8.0B. This is what Howard Berger was referring to in his blog that he just posted. Which unfortunately was just a quick scan of the internet for the most negative and ridiculously positive things said about Nikolai. Nothing realistic on either side. The russian prospects page was from before he was even drafted. These are scouting reports of a very raw prospect and really not much of a reflection of what he is today. From the youtube videos and interviews with his coaches I gather he is fast physical and appears to have pretty good hands. So am I a little excited? Heck yea I am and I believe most fans from different teams would be. Am I saying hes the next Sundin or savior of the leafs? Nope but I am allowed to hope he is aren't I?
The updated thoughts from the scouts seem to be the same. He has the ability to be a top line player or just a very good third liner. There is no doubt he has the potential so why wouldn't everyone be excited or at least curious to see what he can do?