Lightning hope Kucherov is the next Mr. Game 7 Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has emerged as a clutch performer, capable of delivering in the biggest moments, Frank Seravalli writes.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

Nikita Kucherov’s road to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final began four years ago in Moscow.

Kucherov wasn’t a clutch player then. He wasn’t even a regular in the CSKA Red Army lineup.

Kucherov, then 19, mapped out a path to the NHL. He just needed to find a way out of his KHL contract, which had four years remaining — one of the reasons NHL teams were leery about drafting him.

There was a complicated clause in his contract that would permit him to buy out his own deal if he presented the Red Army team with a certain amount of the stated value.

In Russia, many problems can be solved with money, but the only guarantee for Kucherov was that there was no guarantee he could wiggle out.

The exact amount is unclear. It was somewhere between a year’s worth of college tuition and the low six figures.

Kucherov got busy. He cobbled together the required funds that spring from his parents, relatives, family friends and maybe even a Canadian Hockey League benefactor eager to see the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect make it to North America to pursue his dream.

Then a funny thing happened.

Russian oil and gas conglomerate Rosneft, owned by the government, bought the CSKA franchise. The Red Army team went from having no money to more than they could ever imagine.

When Kucherov presented the cash to buy himself out of his deal, CSKA Moscow released him without any financial obligation. They didn’t see Kucherov as can’t-miss burgeoning star, despite the statistical hints.

CSKA Red Army more or less shrugged. The money was no issue. They figured it was a goodwill gesture. If Kucherov’s run in the NHL didn't work out, the Red Army team hoped he would consider a return.

The words of former Red Army GM Sergei Nemchinov, who was fired amid the Rosneft transition, loomed large.

“You have to see this kid,” Nemchinov, who won a Stanley Cup with the Rangers in 1994, told agent Scott Greenspun. “Everyone will be talking about Nail Yakupov, but Nikita Kucherov is the best Russian-born player in this birth year.”

Kucherov’s timely release from CSKA was his first big break. He made the rest happen.

That has all led him to Thursday night at Consol Energy Center, where the Lightning will be counting on their 22-year-old leading scorer to push them to a second straight Stanley Cup final in Game 7 against the Penguins.

Kucherov leads all skaters in the Eastern Conference final with seven points, including two goals. He also paced the Lightning in both regular season (66) and playoff (19) points.

Kucherov has developed a reputation in these Stanley Cup playoffs as a third-period assassin, a clutch player who has delivered in the biggest moments.

He has the next Mr. Game 7 written all over him.

Of his 11 goals this postseason, eight have tied the game or given Tampa Bay a lead. Three come-from-behind goals have sent the contest to overtime, all of which resulted in Lightning wins.

“He keeps climbing the ladder, keeps getting better,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said. “But what really has been remarkable for me in watching him this year is the timeliness of his game. He’s not scoring one goal in a 6-1 loss or the sixth goal in a 6-1 win. He’s getting the game tier, the game winner, sets up the biggest goals. That says a little bit about the type of player you are.”

His type of player has often been miscast by NHL scouts. Some 57 players were picked before him during the 2011 draft, despite the fact he set a still-standing IIHF Under-18 World Championship record with 21 points in seven games in his draft year.

“He didn’t just score against the poor sisters of that tournament, either,” said Al Murray, the Lightning’s director of amateur scouting. “He scored against all the big countries, and took his lumps and hits in that tournament. They targeted him and he responded.”

TSN director of scouting Craig Button had Kucherov ranked 17th overall in his draft rankings in 2011. But NHL central scouting had Kucherov as the 17th-best European skater, which isn’t a first-round ranking. TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie had Kucherov slotted at 56th overall.

Kucherov went 58th to Tampa Bay, three picks before the third round.

His talent was obvious. But so many questions lingered. Kucherov was 5-foot-11 and weighed maybe 167 pounds. He was coming off two shoulder surgeries. He wasn’t known for his defensive prowess. And he had four more years left on his deal with CSKA.

Cold War fear somehow ruled draft day in 2011.

“I think at that time there was still a Russian factor,” Murray said. “Alexander Radulov just went back to Russia. We saw lots of players that did not want to come over. Teams were very leery at the time to spend a high pick on a Russian player. We weren’t sure whether the KHL would put millions of dollars on their plate to stay home.”

But Murray said the Lightning had reason to believe Kucherov “wanted badly” to play in the NHL above all else. He arrived at his draft interview well-dressed. He tried to speak English. He expressed a willingness to play in the NHL. And his parents were already in New York, Murray said, working on behalf of the Russian government in a diplomatic role.

If there was any NHL general manager willing to buck the Russian bias, it was Steve Yzerman, who starred with the Russian Five in Detroit.

Because of that, the Lightning cleaned up in the 2011 and 2012 drafts, setting this current roster up for multiple Stanley Cup runs. Vladislav Namestnikov, Kucherov and Nikita Nesterov were taken with their first three picks in 2011; Game 7 starting netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was the first goalie off the board in the first round in 2012.

“He didn’t need to be sold,” Murray said. “I think any time you draft three Russians back-to-back-to-back to start a draft, people will raise an eyebrow at that. I think Steve’s great relations with Russians in the past played a huge part. At the end of the day, he is ultimately the man most accountable when he puts his name beside those picks. He is the one who is going to take heat for it.”

Even when Kucherov made it to North America, it wasn’t always as easy as becoming the second-fastest active player to net 20 playoff goals, which he did in 38 games, tying Sidney Crosby and Jarome Iginla. Alex Ovechkin was the only player quicker to hit that mark.

It feels so long ago now, but Kucherov was a healthy scratch two playoff runs ago in 2014, when Tampa Bay was swept by the Montreal Canadiens.

A lot of Kucherov’s rapid ascent, teammates say, can be attributed to his attitude.

When Patrick Roy’s Quebec City Remparts in the QMJHL didn't have a spot for him due to import rules during the 2012-13 lockout, Kucherov happily accepted a trade to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Then he stuck it to the Remparts in the playoffs.

“He probably didn’t even know where the hell Rouyn-Noranda was, or ever heard of it,” Murray said.

When Kucherov arrived with the highest body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight relative to height, for Tampa Bay’s prospect camp in 2011, he asked his agent to find him a personal trainer.

When Kucherov was scratched in 2013-14 because of inconsistencies and lack of defensive awareness, he didn’t complain or ask to be traded.

His response that summer was: “I’m going to make sure that never happens again.”

Next season, when Kucherov was susceptible to waivers and spent the first month of the year in a hotel, he responded by leading the entire league in plus/minus with a plus-38. He currently leads all playoff players as a plus-17.

“I know people say that it’s a flawed stat and doesn't mean anything,” Cooper said. “It has to account for something. It means you’re playing the right way.”

The right way, Kucherov said, means not putting himself above others.

“It doesn’t matter who scores the goal,” Kucherov said Sunday night. “The most important thing is we get the Ws and we win the games and we play with structure.”

With Steven Stamkos out, Tampa Bay’s structure now has Kucherov improbably at the forefront. Teammate Victor Hedman said Kucherov has this innate ability to “get lost” in the offensive zone like all of the great goal scorers before him.

He is the sniper lurking in plain sight, the talent everyone saw but every team nearly passed over twice, now ready to strike with the season on the line.

“When you need him,” Cooper said, “he’s the one that’s ultimately, more often than not, that’s there for you.”

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli