Chicago keeps him then he's just a victim of an extremely deep Tampa Bay lightning fowards group there is a lot more than that 25 . Just like Carter Verheaghe, Yanni Gourde, Jonathan Marchessault. All guy who really didn't get the chance until 24-26 because they were buried in TB

Who wants to deal with a selfish prima dona that refuses assignment

CHI declines. We'll take our chances at the 23/24 TDL, if we even trade him at all.

Nobody and it's a well-taken point, but by all accounts this wasn't a case of "I'm too good for the AHL" and more along the lines of "I feel that developing at home is better for me." Not saying you're wrong, but Firstov would definitely be a player worth doing the due diligence on. He can be pretty electric and just had a better 21-year old KHL season than guys like Kuzmenko, Kravstov, Nichushkin, Kuznetsov, and Marchenko. Not a random bum we're talking about.

Also....probably fair to assume Rockford/Chicago sounds more appetizing than Iowa if you're a 21 year old Russian, yeah?

If that was the primary reason I gave this may be extremely relevant, however they have a guy who was under utilized on TB( we've all seen how that's worked for others before
(Verheaghe, Marchessault) Raddysh is going to be a 30+ goal guy

Oh I have no issue with you or any other fan wanting to keep Raddysh. I was just giving you additional context around your second point.

Not wanting to trade Raddysh isn't the same thing as not having interest in Firstov. My point was just that you'd want to do your own due diligence with a guy like that vs. taking some description at face value and immediately assign someone as being a prima donna.

Fair enough however and I'd if I were GM would have to be absolutely convinced, because he would be starting with 1 strike against him. The KHL doesn't give a f***about development for an NHL team. Also several players never quite adjust to the smaller rink sizes