Player Profile: Maxim Chudinov

McKeen's correspondent Alessandro Seren Rosso offers the following player profile on Russian prospect Maxim Chudinov. The young defenseman is in his second year of draft eligibility after he was surprisingly overlooked at the last NHL Entry Draft.

Maxim Chudinov, a 1990 DOB, is a young, but experienced defenseman who was surprisingly overlooked in the last NHL Entry Draft. As thought by himself too, the lack of a transfer agreement between Russia and the National Hockey League gave as result the dearth of the interests in Russian players, who are now less appealing than before.

"Yes, I too think that now, less Russian players are drafted because of no agreement between NHL and KHL."

The KHL further empowered this view, as now the teams from Moscow, Kazan, Omsk, etc, can spend more over players and sign them to salaries not comparable to the odd $50,000 they'd earn playing in the American Hockey League (like the Pavel Valentenko-case witnessed). Chudinov is among the players who, like Kostromitin, Lazarev and others, were surely good enough to be picked up, but ended undrafted, as NHL teams would not take the gamble of risking a pick for them.

Chudinov was born in Cherepovets, Russia, in the northern region of Vologda, an industrial town mostly turning around the SeverStal steel company (SeverStal could be roughly translated as Steel of the North).

"When I was in my first grade, on 3rd or 4th of September [school years always starts on September 1st, note of the author], hockey coach Alexander Mikolenko came to our school. Among the kids he did a mini-test, and invited me to the hockey sports class along with - I think - two other guys, that is, probably, the fate... I'm grateful to Alexander Alexandrovich because he did make a big contribution in making me a hockey player. Also I want to thank Mikhalkevich E.L (1989 coach) and the coaches of the farm team Ivanov S.I. and Petrov I.Z. who also taught me a lot."

Cherepovets has always had a good hockey team in the last few years, even if Severstal never reached any medal achievement. In the last few years, they started producing some good hockey talents. Viktor Tikhonov of the Phoenix Coyotes played there in his last year in Russia, even if he's not a Cherepovets home-grown player. Maxim Trunev, the speedy winger draftee of the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins' prospect Yuri Alexandrov are other good products of Cherepovets Severstal.

Grown in this environment, where he "always played as a defenseman", Chudinov started making a name for himself in the 2006-07 season, where he started playing in the RSL at age 16, and was an underage player at the WJC Under-18 in Finland won by Russia in the finals against the USA.. In addition, he has always been a regular on the Russia-90 national team.

"Until I entered Severstal's main lineup I played with my co-aged in Severstal 1990 until I was 15, also I was called to play in the [national] finals with the 1989 team. I was also called for national teams '89 and '90 as well, where I won a silver and a bronze medal in the WJC."

A small but tough defenseman, Chudinov earned his spot on the national team thanks to his physical play, hitting abilities and a good level of technique. Qualities that allowed him to represent Russia in many international tournaments, hence the reason why he got a lot of experience.

After playing in the Super Series, Chudinov made some good steps forward becoming a regular for his home club and by playing in the 2008 WJC in the Czech Republic, where once again he displayed his excellent competitive spirit and aggressiveness. He likes to play with an edge and with the maturity he gained, he now doesn't get caught in penalty trouble by the refs. In this season's WJC, Chudinov also displayed his good technique level as long as his very good passing abilities, despite not being an offensive defenseman. He has a very good technique level that allows him to record many assists on the scoresheet. He can feed players nicely as well as make a good breakout pass for a quick counterattack. In this season's WJC, Chudinov recorded five assists in seven matches, while with Severstal, he has been left scoreless in 26 KHL regular season matches.

"I think that this season was rather good for me. For the main team I played around the 50% of the matches and I think I could have played even more, but I was with the junior national team in the WJC, where we won the bronze medal, and I believe that it was a not bad result."

Aggressive back in the zone, Chudinov is a very promising defensive defenseman with some interesting offensive upside, a bit undersized but very reliable in the defensive zone.

"The most important thing for me is surely the defense. But I can also join the rush."

Further experience will arrive, and thus he will be caught out of position less frequently.

The young Maxim though has clear ideas: he wants to play in the NHL.

"I'll decide what I will do in the next season if they will draft me. But I have a big will in trying my fortunes overseas".