He'll be playing with Tnias Mathurin now too. Always good to see two Wings on the same team starting the chemistry early.
I follow some guys who are Russian prospect nerds, so I can get their scoop on things. Buchnelikov was definitely on radars, as even they/I was aware he was sneaky good b4 the draft. That said, Trikozov was the favorite (besides the obvious 1st rounders), and I as well wanted Trikozov for the Gleb memes.
This year:
Miroshnichenko (taken 20th same draft) - 0 pts in 3 KHL - 3 pts in 4 VHL - 11 pts in 8 MHL
Buchnelikov -------------------------------------- 2 pts in 10 KHL - 20 pts in 18 VHL - 9 pts in 3 MHL
Trikozov ------------------------------------------- 0 pts in 1 KHL - 9 pts in 20 VHL - 3 pts in 5 MHL
There's a distinct possibility we got the best Russian in that draft in the 2nd round.
Only Danila Yurov is ahead of him (24th overall) - but Yurov also started in the VHL and got called up to the KHL very quickly, so he has quite a few more games played in the KHL than Buch does. But Yurov also hasn't scored much since he's been there...