The Canucks prospect no one knows about

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Allow me to introduce you to the Canucks prospect that doesnt get enough love. 

Kirill Kudryavtsev. 

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. Kudryavtsev is a Russian born draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks, who plays defense.  

Heres where things start to get interesting. Kudryavtsev was drafted in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. The odds of a player from the last round of the draft making the NHL is about 5%.  

Now, most normal people have a life, and would not care or have the time to obsess over Kudryavtsev’s stats in the OHL or the AHL. But I guess that was my position to fill.  

Leagues in Russia like the KHL and the MHL do not care for developing players, especially if their teams believe they will one day ditch them for North America. Another Canucks prospect that fell victim to this was Vasili Podkolzin, and it was happening to Kudryavtsev. Sensing his time would not come in his homeland, he made the switch to Canada to play on the Soo Greyhounds. And with 39 points in 68 games, Kudryavtsev was on the map.  

With such limited playing time in North America, it took until the seventh round for a team to take a chance on him. But after two more seasons in junior, his stock rose fast.  

Without even finishing his first full year with the Canucks AHL affiliate in Abbotsford, Kudryavtsev got into a couple of games at the end of the year. Now fans were starting to notice him, and there was a serious push from them during the preseason for Kudryavtsev to make the team out of camp.  

Alas, it didn’t happen. But another late season call up had him get 2 assists in 4 games. Next season, a spot on the regular defense corps is seemingly Kudryavtsev’s to lose. 

Don’t get it twisted, Canucks fans shouldn’t be penciling him in as a future star, think along the lines of Elias Pettersson (the defenseman)  it’s his consistently positive under-the-radar development that makes him so easy to root for.  

So why should you care?  

Well, the Canucks are going to be bad again next season. So, if you plan to subject yourself to watching that filth on the ice next season, you’re going to need to know a couple positives storylines to keep you going.  

Kudryavtsev’s progression is definitely going to be one of those.