| Viktor Neuchev | Avto Yekaterinburg | MHL | L | RW | 6’2″ | 165 | Chelyabinsk, RUS | 2003 | 2021-2022: A- |
Ian Moran’s Thoughts: His team scored 197 goals on the season and Neuchev scored 40 of them. He plays and handles his stick like a goal scorer. His first touch is smooth. All in one motion he prepares his hands to receive the puck and snap it with eyes up looking for the netting… not the goal. The netting behind the goalie. I’m sure we have him higher than most people, but goals are goals and he can score.
Team Russia vs U20 Team Russia, May 5, 2022: In the 4-2 loss to the older Team Russia the late 2003 earned a modest 3:21 in TOI, but even though he did not play much there were positives to see. Neuchev was very confident with puck. We liked his ability to hold the puck for an extended time on his forehand side as he drew opponents closer to him before making the outlet pass. We also liked that although he may be tall and slender, Neuchev was very confident in front of his oppoenent’s net. He showed good strength and balance while battling to take the goaltender’s eyes away. From what we can tell this was his first game action in almost 2 months.
MHL: HC Irbis vs AVTO Yekaterinburg, March 7, 2022: In the 7-2 loss to Irbis Neuchev earned 22:47 in TOI, including 4:03 while on the power play. He finished with a ridiculous 14 giveaways compared to 2 takeaways, but he led the game with 3 grade “A” scoring opportunities and scored on a quick release snap shot while on the power play. The thing we noticed about his giveaways is that most of them occurred at the offensive blueline where he made what North American coaches would call the right hockey play as he soft chipped the puck to the strong side corner. We do feel we’d like to see him fight his through contact to the puck, but in the North American professional hockey Neuchev will have a linemate providing “slash support” to retrieve those 50/50 pucks. Offensively he played with his eyes up looking for linemates who had mismatches in speed and he has the skill to lose opposing defenders in the offensive zone so he is alone in the soft area in the high slot when it’s time to score.