New York Islanders Top 25 Under 25: Kirill Petrov, one more appearance at #23

What can I say, I'm a Kirill Petrov fan? If he made the oceanic leap, I'm confident he'd be an immediate contributor as a smart middle-six guy for the New York Islanders.

That said, the fact he may never leave the homeland is why he's everywhere from the teens to off the ballot in our 2014 pre-draft Top 25 Under 25 poll. The aggregate result is a rank of #23.

He is 24 now, so he will literally fall off the ballot this time next year.

Here is how the bold, the lucky, the franchised ranked him:

The range there is in some ways a testament to what we're doing here: Different voters value signability and "if he was in the lineup today" with different weights, so the average is some semblance of how the youngest Islanders assets are perceived.

As for the most elusive Kirill, he's been with Ak Bars Kazan (Anders Nilsson's new team!) for a while now, and he's hardly lighting it up -- around .5 points per game, generally. But what I like about him is he's trusted in non-scorer roles, yet still puts up some points. That's never bad to have in your depth positions.

Nonetheless, it's probably moot. There have been no recent signs of interest from his side to come over, and the Islanders forward depth is only growing without him. But I will say, you never know. Carl Soderberg was never coming over, so the Blues traded him seven years ago. Then he signed with the Bruins two seasons ago and became a key player.

A few more notes from the panel...

Mark:

Interesting that all three players on Kazan Ak-Bars that had more points then him had short unremarkable NHL careers. Including first round (#8 Overall) Alexander Burmistrov.

CIL:

The obvious question is whether or not Petrov will ever play in the NHL, let alone for the Islanders. He has size, can skate, can play physical. How will his KHL game translate to the NHL? A left shot that prefers the off-wing, highly unlikely Petrov will ever be a top six forward as he isn't even that in the KHL.

That said, NHL coaches usually do not like defensive, bottom-six wingers playing the off-wing (defensive plays are easier to make on forehand as opposed to backhand). Petrov projects as either a 3rd or 4th liner, you may be able to provide spot relief on the 2nd line.

He likely would be an upgrade over at least one of the Isles bottom six RWs, but Petrov's skillset is one that can be acquired elsewhere should he decide to stay in the KHL.

Well, that takes care of both Kirills. (Kabanov was listed at 24.) Time for Top 3 Over 35, yeah? Dan Boyle looks nice...