MHL Future Stars: David Mnatsyan

After we talked with Samvel Mnatsyan, MHL Hockey is proud to introduce you his brother David, who currently plays for Avangard-93 and thus will be eligible to play in the MHL only next year. MHL Hockey thanks David for his time and his patience to take this interview.

Hi David. Tell our readers about yourself. Where were you born? Why did you choose hockey and not other kind of sports?

I'm David Mnatsyan, I'm 16 and I was born in Omsk. When I was 6 I went to my brother's training. More than everything I loved the passion and the emotions I could witness on ice. When I was a child I also liked football, but in my city that kind of sport isn't as developed as hockey. My city lives for Avangard Omsk.

I think that your dream is to become a hockey player, isn't it?

Yes, it is. Just like any other player I dream about playing in the world's best league, the NHL. And I hope to get that chance. That's my aim and I'm working for it.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I almost don't have any. That time is as valuable as gold. I like going to the movies or meeting friends. I also like a lot playing with the PS3. And there is the school too! It takes me a lot of time itself. I work hard to combine all this

What and where do you study?

I study in a sport class of a general education school. In that class go all my team mates. Our schedule is tied with out trainings and thanks to this we can go playing in other cities for away games.

Is there anything that you specifically work on during trainings?

I work a lot every day on shooting and skating. These are the most important components of a blue liner's game.

Do you pattern your game after a player in the NHL or in the KHL?

More than anyone I like Andrei Markov. I like how he plays back in the zone and how he joins the rush going forward.

How would you describe your personality?

I'm persistent, I believe in myself and I always want to win. If you have these quality you can do everything.

How many sticks did you use last season?

Around 10 to 12.

Favorite book?

I like Dan Brown's “Angels and Demons”.

Favourite dish?

Meat.

Favorite NHL team?

New York Rangers.

Favorite KHL team?

Avangard Omsk

Stanley Cup or Olympic Gold?

Stanley Cup.

Last question: who's better, you or your brother?

My brother has got talent, I won't argue. But I don't think my qualities are worse than his. I'll work hard to fullfil my expectations and I'll work hard to become better than him.

Prospects breakdown - MHL who's who (Part 2)

After we presented you the players to watch in Moscow and its nearby towns, we present now the rest of the Western Conference. A team that always produced lots of talent is Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. A prominent careers builder, the former railroad workers team always had lots of young players with itself. It's not a case that they are now on the top of Western Conference's standings. Nowadays' most interesting player is a versatile forward who isn't spending much time in the MHL as he's playing with the big boys in the KHL and just recently scored his first goal. We're talking about Daniil Sobchenko, an offensive player capable to play both center and winger who almost never represented Russia on the international stage because of conflicts with Vladimir Plyuschev. Sobchenko, who has his excellent passing game as main weapon, was thought to be one of the MHL stars, but he's going beyond the expectations, playing a regular role in the KHL. Another player meant to be one of the MHL top players is Anton Klementyev, who instead opted to sign an ELC with the New York Islanders. Sergei Ostapchuk, who spent last season in the QMJHL with Rouyn-Noranda, skated in only two games, getting an assist in both challenges. Also Ostapchuk already got his KHL experience. Maybe, coming the late stages, Loko will see these players more often, trying to catch the first-ever MHL title. For now, they are a team who plays a good team game without depending too much on one or two players. Top goalscorer Maxim Zyuzyakin is on good shape, he scored the GWG in the recent clash against MHK Dinamo and netted a total of 6 goals so far.

The third seed in the West is taken by SKA-1946. The St. Petersburg's team, who's coached by Italo-Canadian Ivano Zanatta, had the first-ever MHL shutout with its 1988-born goalie Nikita Starikov, who's having a convincing season so far even if he's still far from the KHL level. His colleague Evgeny Ivannikov is having a good season too. One of the most awaited players from me for this season was offensive defenseman Georgy Berdyukov, but he was quickly sent to SKA's High League affiliated to play against men. An interesting name is Magomed Gimbatov, and not only because he's the first KHL player from Dagestan. Grow up in St. Petersburg and earned his hockey experience both in this city and in Novokuznetsk, the dynamic winger has played only four games so far as he started the season with the main team, but he scored four points. The team's top scorer is surprisingly Yaroslav Gorbachenko, author of 11 points in ten games. The 20-years old is in a red hot strike as he scored six games in the last three games, but the whole team looks like being in great shape as they just asphalted Mytischie Atlanty 7-0 at home. Gorbachenko was also the shoot-out scorer in the SKA-1946's 1-0 win against Feniks Voskresensk in September 6th. The St. Petersburg team has also got one of the league's top assistmen in Nikita Tochitsky.

It's legit to expect some good things also from Almaz Cherepovets. The team has hosted a good number of younger players with big success, including Phoenix Coyotes' Viktor Tikhonov, Boston's draftee Yuri Alexandrov, Maxim Chudinov and others. In the start of the year two-way defenseman Bogdan Kiselevich was with Almaz, but he has been called up in the KHL and never sent back to the junior team. Another really interesting player is center Sergei Chvanov. Back in April he was team Russia's captain in the U18 WJC in the USA (where Russia lost the final match to the hosts), but curiously he's not Almaz's captain, a role taken by forward Anton Tikhonov. Chvanov isn't having too much of success, he scored a double in the very first match, then he scored again in the following match and then he disappeared from the scoresheet, but he's also went to the KHL route and thus isn't having too many chances in both leagues. There is another player worth mentioning: the homonym of Metallurg Novokuznetsk defenseman, Washington Capitals draftee Dmitri Orlov. The talented winger plays first line hockey and has rewarded his team with eight points in as many matches, with five goals so far. Despite his undeniable talent he needs to find some consistency as he doesn’t manage to score on a regular basis as he tends getting many points in one game just to be silent for the next couple of contests.
Chaika from Nizhny Novgorod isn’t having a good season so far and in their lineup they don’t feature any real star. They are now third-last in the Western Conference standings, just ahead of Feniks Voskresensk and Mytischie Atlanty.

Prospects breakdown - MHL who's who (Part 1)

Following the request of our reader Jake in my latest entry, I've decided to write down some breakdown about the players to watch. Known and less known.

Let's start from the most known one, Alexander Avtsin, who plays for MHK Dinamo Moscow. The Montreal Canadiens draftee is one of the league's start, despite ending scoreless in the first MHL match he played, against Red Army. He didn't participate to the second match as he was a call-up for Dinamo's main team in a preseasonal match, confirming that he's one of the first junior players considered for a callup in a very stacked KHL team. The quick power forward, who has been often compared to Alexander Ovechkin, might play a key role in his team, but he needs to start producing after his not good first game. But well, it was only one game.

In his same team some other interesting players get good ice time. Nikita Dvurechensky is among them. Described as "a skilled winger with an excellent touch around the net and interesting finishing abilities" in an April Hockey's Future article I wrote myself, Dvurechensky already showed his stuff in the MHL start as he scored two goals and one assist in the first game, staying off the score-sheet in the second. Ranked highly enough for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, #12 among Russians in the Russian Prospects' rankings, he ended up undrafted, most likely because of the notorious problems in movements from Russia to America.

Another interesting player from MHK Dinamo is the former OHL player Vitaly Karamnov. The center, who has been in Edmonton's radar in 2007, is a playmaking center gifted with good technique and skating, who has been misteriously not drafted. Pavel Zotov, 1991-born center, is more solid and probably strongest on the faceoff dots, but is still raw and despite being a regular in Russia-91 he has been overlooked during the rankings time and consequently for the draft.

Let's remain in Moscow. CSKA-Krasnaya Armiya showcases in its lineup one of the "MHL faces", offensive defenseman Alexei Marchenko. A typical Russian defenseman, Marchenko (the stress in his surname is in the first syllab) is an average sized defenseman who might have to work on his body, but that is able to do exciting rushes end-to-end with the puck on the blade. And he can finish them too as he did in the second game of the season against MHK Dinamo, where he scored a double. He likes to play with some edge and is fairly aggressive without exaggerating, like sometimes junior players do when they want to show some aggressivity. He has definitely KHL potential, but I think that he might be considered for the 2010 NHL draft as he can develop into a NHL level powerplay quarterback.

League's topscorer, right winger Nikita Gusev is so far Krasnaya-Armiya's best player. He still has to demonstrate that he can do it throughout the whole season, but his speed, play without the puck and nose for the net are interesting features that might give him a spot in the U18 national team. CSKA's goalie Pavel Suchkov, 2011 eligible as he's a late 1992-born, is having a good start, looking better than his colleague Anton Todykov. But well, there is a reason if Suchkov is a national team player and Todykov not. Good things are expected also from small winger Sergei Barbashev, whose skill level is surely noticeable, but it had a bit of hard time in the MHL start, indicating that he needs to bulk up and mature as a player. Curiously enough, 1993-born Nikita Kucherov had an excellent start with three goals in the first two matches, way better than many of the highly touted players we talked about.

Our trip around Moscow isn't over yet as in Spartak Moscow other players worthy a mention keep on growing up in the prolific talent factory. The dynamic duo formed by 18-year old Artem Voronin and 17-years old Alexander Gogolev might be yet another offensive weapon that can cause havoc in any opposition, while the future star Alexander Khokhlachev, 1993 born, has started growing and already scored his first MHL point with an assist in MHK Spartak's win against Chaika Nizhny Novgorod. Among the three players is of course Khokhlachev the most promising one, he has everything that a forward needs, being able to count on an excellent shot, a very good technique, great skating and even a good size considering his age.

The Moscow territory counts other four teams: Atlant (Mytischi), Sherif (Balashikha), Feniks (Voskresensk), Russkie Vityazi (Chekhov) and MHK Krylya Sovetov. Atlant might have the most complete and experienced first line, if their head coach Vladimir Kucherenko will decide to ice together Pavel Chernov, Anton Lazarev and Oleg Yashin. All the three players have KHL and national junior team experience, and being the three all different kind of hockey player they might fit very well together. Pavel Chernov is a very good playmaking center with a good physical play despite a relative small size. Anton Lazarev is a quick forward with smooth skating and above average finishing abilities, Oleg Yashin is a talented winger who can put it in the back of the net if he gets the right pass. Sherif Balashikha and Feniks Voskresensk have less interesting teams, who will most likely struggle throughout the whole season, while MHK Krylya Sovetov and Russkie Vityazi has much more interesting players, especially the latter. Krylya Sovetov's 1992-born forward Ignat Zemchenko is one of the players to watch, together with his team mates Artur Ganzvind and Dmitri Gromov. Russkie Vityazi instead can count on a very good trio made up of Artemy Panarin, Petr Kopytsov and Georgi Belousov. Their team started very well the season and after three matches they top the Western Conference with six points.

For this issue it's all. The second part will follow soon with the rest of the top MHL talent.

MHL starts: MHK Dinamo skates past Red Army

In the first-ever MHL match, played on September 4th in Moscow, MHK Dinamo downed CSKA-Krasnaya Armiya with a 6-2 score. Everyone was probably waiting for Alexander Avtsin to get the goals for Dinamo, but instead Nikita Dvurechensky, highly ranked player for the 2009 drafted, has been the game's top player scoring two goals, one assist and having many other chances throughout the game. In the first ten minutes of the match Dinamo had almost no chance to get past the central red line, but after a couple of powerplays for the Red Army the white and blues exploited a couple of good chances on counterattacks, in both cases putting the puck high glove side, first with Roman Vasiliev, then with Nikita Dvurechensky. "It was pleasant to score the first-ever MHL hockey, of course. I trained such kind of shoots with Afanasenkov" - declared Vasiliev to the popular Russian hockey network www.allhockey.ru

After allowing the second goal, CSKA coach Andrei Parfenov replaced Anton Todykov with the U18 national team goalie Pavel Suchkov, who looked more confortable, at least at the start. In the second period the music changed as Dinamo's quick counterattacks have been better contained by the Red Army, who managed first to cut down opponents' lead after a beautiful two-on-one play inspired by Nikita Gusev finalized by Nikita Kucherov, then with Gusev, tapping in a rebound left by Dinamo goalie Sharychenkov after a shot by Kucherov again.

But in the third period the more experienced Dinamo players taken the game away scoring four goals. The eventual game winner has been scored by Nikita Dvurechensky, who crashed the net puck on the blade to put the puck past Suchkov from close range. A bunch of minutes later Dinamo scored other two goals in a 25-second range with Kombachev and Biryukov, the second on an assist by former WHL player Vitaly Karamnov. At the 57'30" Dinamo player Kuzmin made it 6-2 with a shorthanded goal.

"It was a good game. We had good nerves and we won thanks to a good display by our forwards" - declared MHK Dinamo's coach Anatoli Antipov.

Scouting notes

Dinamo players

Alexander Avtsin: served as first line left wing with Zotov and Kuzmin...despite having some chances, was rather quite...probably he felt the pressure...good when his team has the puck, has to learn what to do when the other team has the possession...got two penalties, one of them for revenge...can crash the net, but has to work on his finishing...not a bad performance, but either not the best one...

Vitaly Zotov: a solid center good in the face-off dots...can work on his play but is pretty all-around thanks to his good fundamentals...may be a tad more creative...

Nikita Dvurechensky: the game's MVP...scored two goals and assisted on another...good use of the size both along the boards and open ice...very good stickhandling and nose for the net...looks like a mature player, deserves a chance with Dinamo's main team...

CSKA-Krasnaya Armiya

Alexei Marchenko: a very interesting offensive defenseman with good playmaking abilities who can serve as powerplay quarterback...good hand-eye coordination...very good puck handling, especially while going end to end with the puck on the blade...plays confidently, with some edge in the corners...has to bulk up...

Marat Urakcheev: iced as first line right winger has played surprisingly well even if not consistently...displayed a very good stickhandling...despite being not a top player managed to hold his spot on the team's first unit...

Sergei Barbashev: played not up to the expectations...has been quite uneffective throughout the whole game...served as second line left winger with Roman Lyubimov and center Artem Maslov...

Boxscore

CSKA – Krasnaya Armiya – MHK Dinamo 2:6 (0:2, 2:0, 0:4)
0:1 Vasiliev (Kombachev) 11:11 0:2 Dvurechensky (Khamidulin) 14:48 1:2 Kucherov (Gusev) 34:28 2:2 Gusev (Kucherov, Noskov) 39:58 PP 2:3 Dvurechensky 41:40 2:4 Biryukov (Karamnov, Kuzmin) 47:06 2:5 Kombachev (Dvurechensky) 47:06 2:6 Kuzmin (Burets) 57:30 SH