Carl Grundström

Carl Grundström had knee surgery last Thursday. This was the scope and meniscus repair sort of thing, and the prognosis as reported in multiple places is for a fairly short recovery time. He may miss as little as a month, but a return early next year is also possible.

Yegor Korshkov

Lokomotiv played three games this week, and won two of them. The team is comfortably in fourth place in their conference and has very little realistic chance of moving up. They weathered their early poor play, and all they need to do is keep on keeping on for the second half of the season, which has the long Olympic break in it, and hope they can get lucky in their first round playoff matchup.

In their first game of the three, a low scoring affair, Yegor Korshkov played third line minutes and his line had no points. In the second game a loss to a really bad eastern team, his nemesis, the other right wing, Daniil Apalkov, scored the only goal.  In the third game, a win over Kunlun Red Star, Apalkov played the most minutes of all forwards with Korshkov’s line coming in just behind him.  Korshkov had one assist in that game.

That news is intriguing because if Kraskovsky is going to make the jump, that breaks up the line for the Lokomotiv coach, something he’s never done other than for injuries reasons. It seems plausible that Korshkov might show up at Leafs camps this summer too.

Korshkov is now at seven goals and seven assists, fourth on the team for forwards (sixth overall) and three points behind Apalkov.

Pierre Engvall

Still on injury recovery.

Jesper Lindgren

Jesper Lindgren was back in the lineup for HPK’s most recent pair of games, playing approximately third pair minutes in both. He’s still stuck on three points in 23 games.

Nikolai Chebykin

Nikolai Chebykin played two more VHL games and hasn’t added to his modest points totals.

Vladimir Bobylyov

Vladimir Bobylyov played in one game this past week, putting in a lot of minutes and coming up empty in points. He’s only played three games in the VHL this year, six games in total. He’d be better off in the ECHL, to be honest.

Vladislav Kara

I had expected Vladislav Kara to return to the VHL after his adventures in Canada playing in the Canada-Russia series. Instead he ended up back on the Ak Bars roster, playing the occasional shift. He had 33 seconds in one game, 30 in another. He’s like a NWHL practice player, I guess.

Ak Bars is the top team in the East and just added Danis Zaripov who won his doping appeal. They also signed Andrei Markov this summer and convinced Vladimir Tkachyov that the Leafs weren’t as good an option as they are. Why they need this kid warming the bench is beyond me, but perhaps the point is development coaching, in which case, thanks Ak Bars, but can we just have Tkachyov next year?

Persons of Interest

Igor Ozhiganov: Elliotte Friedman is now reporting that teams are being told Ozhiganov has a verbal agreement with the Leafs to sign this summer.  He plays up and down the lineup, scores very little, and we’ll know what kind of player is when we see him.  One thing to remember when looking at his time on ice, is that CSKA play under different roster rules than in the NHL, and they have more than seven defenders available for every game.

Friedman: Leafs Have Verbal Commitment From KHL Defender Ozhiganov

Maple Leafs Prospects