Capitals draft Kuznetsov

DISCUSS IT IN SEA OF RED FORUM

The Washington Capitals have drafted RussianC Evgeny Kuznetsov.  Add one more Russian to the Sea of Red.

In the 2009/10 season, Kuznetsov played for Chelyabinsk in Russia. In 32 games, Kuznetsov scored 2 goals and 7 assist. He struggle din the 35 game KHL stint this season. The knock on Kuznetsov is quite simple. Consistency. At times, particularly in juniors, he can look down right dominating, but at other times, especially against older talent, such as the KHL, he simply looks over-matched.

In the younger leagues, he was impressive for the Russian U17 team, where he notched 6 goals and 10 points in only 5 tournament games. He was also outstanding at the U18’s as an underager, where he managed 6 goals and 13 points in only 7 games played.

The other problem with Kuznetsov is he recently re-signed with Traktor for two more years which could potentially hurt his NHL draft stock as teams may be leery of his impending commitment to the KHL.

When he's on his game he can be down right explosive and score readily, but he's not on his game as often as he needs to be.

In other words, drafting Kuznetsov could be high reward or very high risks.

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