Who adds what?
Joined: Jul. 2017
Posts: 13,677
Likes: 2,703
Presumably, Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, and Orlov could sit down and watch tape together a few times a week, and discuss what they saw in Russian, helping them all learn more about the game, faster. They could also learn set plays and defensive strategies, and call them out to each other on the ice in Russian, which, the more the KHL pulls back homegrown talents, amounts to a bit of a secret code in this year's NHL; only half of the teams in the Eastern conference had a Russian born player skate more than four games last year. There's an opportunity cost to trading that first pick early, and not using it to load up on additional talent at the trade deadline (when they might well be looking for a veteran defenseman, but adding the top scoring Russian player in the NHL to play with the 5th, 6th, and 11th best could improve the other guys' performance, and increase Kucherov's learning curve. I'd love to see them add a Russian-speaking defenseman, and maybe an assistant coach, as well, to mentor a mini national team, but I won't hold my breath.