It’s hard to get hockey information out of Russia these days. Red Wings Prospects on Twitter is a beacon of knowledge as it applies to 21-year-old Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov, who’s going to play this upcoming season for CSKA Moscow…
But Americans and Canadians can’t get in and out of Russia easily–or without scandal (see: the Canadiens going to St. Petersburg to woo Ivan Demidov).
So, when the Red Wings made the decision to draft defenseman Nikita Tyurin with the 140th overall pick in this past June’s NHL Draft, the Red Wings’ director of amateur scouting admitted that he leaned very, very heavily on the Wings’ Russian scout in order to determine whether MHK Spartak Moscow defenseman was worth drafting. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen took note of Kris Draper’s remarks regarding Tyurin (via a subscriber-only article):
“All I’ve seen is on video,” said Kris Draper, Detroit’s assistant GM and director of amateur scouting. ” (But) Nikolai Vacherov, our Russian scout, was (in Detroit). As we were discussing players, his name came up. The one thing that Nikolai kept talking about was what a great playoff that he had.”
Tyurin is a 6-foot, 170-pound puck-moving blue liner with steady, effective defensive work. He had four goals and 20 points, and was plus-20, for Spartak in Russia’s top junior team. In the postseason, he posted five assists and was plus-6 in 19 games to help Spartak win the MHL championship.
“Good skater, good hockey sense, good with the puck, good first pass defenseman,” Draper said.
According to Draper, Vacherov “pounded the table” (so to speak) for the Red Wings to utilize their 5th round pick on Tyurin:
“When you’re in the later rounds and you have one of the area scouts that is excited about a player, that’s what I want to hear,” Draper said. “And Nikolai, when we talked about it, said he’d really like to draft him and bring him into the Detroit Red Wings prospect pool. And in the end, that’s why we ended up making that decision.”
Continued (paywall);
I know that fans are absolutely desperate to see Buchelnikov come over to North America, and, given his offensive ability as contrasted against his 5’10,” 170-pound frame, I’m certain that the Red Wings’ training staff want to get their hands on Buchelnikov to bulk him up, too.
Regrettably, Buchelnikov won’t be a free agent until after he plays this upcoming season for CSKA, and the Wings will monitor Tyurin’s development as closely as they can, contract situation included, in order to try and bring him over to North America when he’s ready to make the jump to AHL hockey.
