| Ivan Kornilov | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | R | D | 6’2″ | 181 | Kirov, RUS | 2006 | 2023-2024: B- |
Game Grade: B
Comments: Ivan Kornilov is an incredibly agile and quick skating defenseman. He looks to be a very skilled offensive defenseman but for whatever reason was only given 8 minutes of ice time. He made quick cuts with the puck away from pressure and was very hard to keep up with. He has very quick feet and was able to use them to transition the puck with speed as well as walk the line with quickness and full control of the puck. He makes hard stops when under pressure and is able to quickly get going in the other direction and move the puck with a crisp pass up ice. He fired a bomb of a slap shot from the point. We didn’t get too many notes of him in the defensive zone but thought he had solid positioning. He appears to be a very skilled player but there must be something holding his minutes back.
| Yegor Graf | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | R | LW | 5’10” | 174 | Barnaul, RUS | 2006 | 2023-2024: B |
Game Grade: C+
Comments: His speed was good tonight but his puck handling and decision making were pretty poor. He is easily stopped when skating with the puck. He has good hands but is unable to successfully use them when trying to get around the defense. He was easily poked and fumbled the puck under pressure. He showed off a couple of slick escape moves but was never able to set anything up past the first escape. He was often shut back down very quickly after his quick cuts. His pass decisions were rushed and missed their targets nearly every time. When a forechecker gets on him, he throws the puck away and is not patient enough to switch his choice to a better option if his first choice gets taken away.
| Matvei Korotky | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | R | C | 5’11” | 170 | Krasnoyarsk, RUS | 2005 | 2023-2024: C+ |
Game Grade: B+
Comments: Matvei set a high pace for play whenever he stepped on the ice. He is a very speedy player with a smooth stride and impressive edgework to cut around the zone. We liked his activity defensively, using an active stick and staying in motion to block lanes. We liked his effort but wanted to see a bit more motor from him. Neutral Zone has seen him apply much more pressure than he did tonight and we think that is a very important part of his play style that he needs to bring to every game. His playmaking was a little inconsistent. He made some skilled thread passes on the tape of teammates but a lot of his passes did not help set up any offense and were mostly just quick passes to the closest teammate. He scored the game winning goal in the second on a nice cut to the net. He snuck behind the defense in transition and received a pass right on his tape. He started from the boards and made a very hard cut to the cage where he faked forehand and made a quick move to his backhand before finishing over a sprawling goalie. He has the speed, skill, and defensive IQ to play at the next level but needs to keep that motor going every game.
Logo Courtesy of St. Petersburg SKA-1946
Player Evaluations: Henry Lawrence