| Alexei Dontsov | CSKA Moscow | MHL | L | C | 5’9″ | 176 | Moscow, RUS | 2006 | 2023-2024: B- |
Game Grade: C+
Comments: Dontsov shows off impressive straight line speed and flies up ice once he gets going. He has very quick hands that he uses to trick defenders into biting one way before cutting the other. This game however revealed a lot of the flaws in Alexei’s game that have caused us to lower him in my rankings. The biggest issue is that he has a lot of trouble beating opponents 1v1. He rushes head on and tries complex moves, overhandling the puck and making it easy for defenders to stop his forward progress. The only way he can win is if he has lots of time and space and is already at top speed. This is a rare occasion due to the fact that it takes him a few steps to really accelerate and is unable to create space for himself. He relies on luck, waiting for lanes to be wide open and if they are not, he has little chance of making it up ice successfully. His decisions with the puck were off tonight as well. He rushed passes that were often easily deflected due to his choices to pass into clogged lanes. He also chose to carry the puck into super congested areas rather than move it to wide open teammates. Defensively, he was slow to his spots and often watching play develop. When the puck was moved to his man, he would wake up and try to jump over to cover. It didn’t make much difference in today’s game but if he was up against better competition, he would be giving way too much time to opponents around the net. He has the speed and hands to become an impact offensive player. He was able to pick up a goal at the end of the game set up by a great pass for an easy tap in. He is currently over a point per game this season but unless he can show more on the mental side of his game, Neutral Zone would not pick him until the later rounds.
Player Evaluations: Henry Lawrence