Mikhail Grigorenko Scouting Report

Not saying it shouldn’t be considered, but it’s kind of silly to write a kid off because he’s Russian. Half of the threat is created by the media. How many kids have actually buggered off for Russia?

Colborne isn’t an elite prospect. A good one but not elite.

Think there’s more to it than that. And that idea isn’t about the Habs, it’s about the players they draft/sign.

any streams for Marlies?

I just look at Burkes track record of not drafting Russians and hear about the lack of commitment from Grigorenko, put two and two together and don’t see him as the guy to break the mold. If he had a reputation of dedication to go along with the skill I could see Burke making an exception but he doesn’t.

Radulov, Zherdev, Filatov are the highest profile ones. No, they aren’t kids and didn’t go right away, but they certainly didn’t stick around for long. The risk of flight is greatly increased if things don’t go the exact way the player thinks everything should go (ie. – holding it over management’s head). They were all gone inside of 5 years….you need a 12-15 year player from a top-5 pick.

I do wonder how much of a role the agents play in these decisions. They certainly make more on their cut if the player heads back to big money in Russia.

Definitely a factor – the advice he gets plays a role. I really wish it wasn’t an issue – he’s a talented kid, I’d love to see him in the blue and white for years as our #1 centre.

Also, no one has mentioned Omark yet although it looks like he’ll bolt for the SEL if the Oilers don’t play him in the NHL, or trade him to a team that will. I laugh at the people who speculate that the Leafs should trade for this guy (usually Oilers bloggers/commenters at Oilers blogs-and usually for Luke Schenn, Cody Franson, or Jake Gardiner with picks going back to Edmonton in each scenario. lol). There’s no way that Burke picks this guy up after the attitude he’s displayed up to this point.

Kabanov is supposed to be going there rather than the NHL. And Tarasenko won’t come over to the NHL either.

I still think he’s an awesome prospect. Like I think Kadri is an elite or pretty damn close to an elite prospect. Colborne is a notch below it IMO. I watched him in junior when he got drafted. He was pretty good.

This is were the interviews come into play. I’m not saying to write these kids off but you have to do your due diligance bigtime.

Oh, I completely get what your saying. But if he spent 2 more full years in junior, and then was looking at time in the minors after that, it would be tough to ignore the allure of getting handsomely paid vs. $75/week for 2 years and $67,500 riding the buses….we just don’t know what will happen in that situation – he has all the leverage.