The Flyers’ Should Take A Chance On Late Bloomer: Dmitri Rashevsky

So many teams spend countless hours on who they are going to select with their first and second round picks, but the NHL has seven rounds! In this current salary-cap era, the elite teams have found ways to dig deeper into the prospect pools and find those hidden gems, late bloomers, or just plain overlooked players that have immense talents that other teams aren’t able to find with such a narrow focus. Former Flyers’ General Manager Ron Hextall was excellent at this. Ron was able to find NHL level talent deep into the draft in the fifth and sixth rounds. Hextall didn’t stop there though: Even after the drafts were over Hextall made it a point to sign undrafted free agents (like now Flyers’ top-four defenseman Philippe Myers and the team’s top defensive prospect Yegor Zamula).

Current Flyers’ General Manger Chuck Fletcher has shown in his short time in office that he might be able to find these hidden gems as well with the signing of now-Flyers winger Linus Sandin, who had a monster year this past season in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). One of these type players that this writer came across while combing through stats from leagues all over the world was Russian forward Dmitri Rashevsky. Rashevsky, who is 19-years-old and stands at 6’1 and 165 pounds, played in the MHL this season. The MHL is Russia’s top Major Junior Hockey League. Most players his age might have moved up to Russia’s VHL A.K.A. Supreme Hockey League (which is comparable to the AHL), but one reason for Rashevsky being held back if you will is that in his draft year last season Dmitri was mediocre at best- totaling just four goals and one assist in 24 games played. This year was a whole different story though: Rashevsky had 44 goals (46 if you include playoffs) and 30 assists for 74 points while playing for the MHK Dynamo of St. Petersburg. On top of these impressive stats, Rashevsky averaged a plus 22 on the year as well.

If you look at the above-mentioned video by Draft Dynasty you can see that Dmitri is an ELITE puck handler; Rashevsky doesn’t believe in that damn dump and chase method that we all hate! Instead, he keeps control of the puck and maneuvers his way through his opposition’s defenses. Dmitri is able to do this because he possesses such a high Hockey IQ, which allows
him to make decisions almost instantaneously. Once Rashevsky finds his way through, around, or behind the other team’s defense, Dmitri now gets to decide on which of his other talents to showcase next. Rashevsky is able to analyze the play in front of him- sometimes before it even happens. This helps Dmitri to decide whether he should rip a shot over the goalie’s shoulder (thanks to his rapid fire release) or use his rare ability to drop his shoulder and sell a shot before making a no-look pass that more often than not lands right on his teammate’s stick blade. Dmitri sells his shot to the goalie so well that if this whole hockey thing doesn’t work out he could
probably talk them into buying convertibles in Siberia.

Now- the Russian leagues are a little more unpredictable than ours. Some teams see a player with talent and move him up rather quickly. Like the Salavat Yulaev team of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) did for fellow draft prospect eighteen-year-old Rodin Amirov. Amirov, who is 6’0 168 pounds, played in all three major leagues this season that Russia has to offer and is projected to go in the first round of this year’s draft. But if you
compare these player’s production in the MHL this year, there’s not much difference! Amirov had 10 goals 12 assists for 22 points in the MHL in 17 games played. That’s a 1.29 Point per Game average. Rashevsky had the previous mentioned 74 points in 61 games, that’s good for a 1.21 Point per Game average. Both players have all the tools necessary to one day play a full-time role in the NHL and both are of similar stature. The only difference is Amirov was showcased better by his team when they moved him up to face tougher competition in the KHL. But, this doesn’t always mean it was the right move for that player’s development: Amirov only
had 2 points in 21 games played in the KHL this year. Advancing a young player in leagues too quickly can, in fact, hurt or stunt their development. A young player needs ice time, and slotting them in on the fourth line in the KHL (or any other professional league around the world) only allows them to have five to seven minutes of ice time per game. That simply isn’t enough for most players that are still trying to develop their skills.
Rashevsky’s KHL and VHL teams did not require Dmitri’s services this year because they are one of the better teams in the Russian leagues, but one thing is for certain: Rashevsky will be sure to use the fact he didn’t get a call up this season to fuel his play next season. Dmitri is not a perfect prospect by far, he needs to work on his skating ability. He is not the quickest of
foot and he needs to add weight and muscle as well. One thing that Rashevsky has going for him though is if he is able to put on muscle, it will surely help to strengthen his skating abilities.

While Rashevsky was indeed an overeager playing in Russia’s major junior league this year, his skill set when he had the puck on his stick was that of a true professional! Dmitri all but carried his team on his back this year. He was forced to play with players that didn’t even belong on the same ice as him, and Rashevsky’s point production would have been that much greater if his teammates were just able to capitalize more on the opportunities Dmitri presented them with. Rashevsky maybe a late bloomer but he is a complete player with a motor that won’t stop. He is a threat in both the offensive and defensive zones and his Hockey IQ allows him to be a strong
leader on the ice. If the Flyers were lucky enough to select Dmitri late in the draft, or even sign him thereafter, they would be getting a guy who could one day potentially play top six minutes in the NHL.