Today we’re going to discuss one of my favorite and most highly rated prospects for the 2018 NHL draft: Grigori Denisenko, who plays for Yaroslavl in Russia. Earlier this year I rated him the ninth eligible prospect in this draft class.



Denisenko spent most of the season in the MHL, Russia’s top junior circuit, making this KHL debut just this past weekend. A quick lookup of his stats shows a player with nine goals and 22 points in 33 games. That is not very complimentary. In the MHL’s brief nine-year history, that ranks 60th among U18 players in points per game. There are nine U18 players in the MHL with a better scoring rate.



I’ve watched him live about seven times this season and about another dozen times on video, and I am very confident that the stats do not tell the whole tale with Denisenko. Let me try and show you a piece of what I’ve seen.



SKILL



Denisenko is one of the most skilled players in his draft class. On...