World U18 Championship: Day Four

McKeen's Director of scouting Max Giese is in Fargo, North Dakota for the World U-18 Championship and continues his daily blog with a brief look at some prospects from Team Russia. Max also had the opportunity to catch a USHL playoff game between Fargo and Omaha. Throughout the tournament, McKeen's will also be providing notes on several prospects from all the teams, as well as providing comments from several notable scouts at the tournament.

Let me start with some good news. The parking situation at the UP Center was much better today and I made it in safely without getting swallowed up by the mud pits. Now on to the hockey that was played there today.

The first game of the day was between Norway and Russia. Unfortunately Norway doesn't have any NHL-caliber prospects and they barely put up a worthy fight. Russia scored four goals in the first period and never looked back. There is only one prospect eligible for the 2009 draft that I like out of Russia and that's defenseman Dmitri Orlov, who's got a bullet of a shot. The strength of the Russian lineup is their prospects that are eligible for the 2010 draft. Kirill Kabanov is pretty much as good as it gets and is going to be a special player. If he doesn't go first overall then I can't imagine he won't go second. He's tall, elegant with the puck, and skates like a gazelle. His linemate Vladimir Tarasenko is a very impressive player because of his skill set and the way in which he leads by example with good habits on the ice. Then there is the line that is made up entirely of 2010 eligibles. Evgeni Kuznetsov centers Maxim Kitsyn and Alexander Burmistrov. Kuznetsov is a pure goal scorer with a thirst for the back of the net, Kitsyn is a nice blend of size and skill, and Burmistrov's finesse tools are unparalleled. Overall the Russian's could be well represented in the first round of the 2010 draft.

The second game of the evening was a USHL playoff contest between the Fargo Force and the Omaha Lancers. Fargo won 4-3 in overtime and overall it was a great game with an exciting atmosphere in the building. Louis Leblanc played a heck of a game and scored a beautiful goal. It took him awhile to adjust to the USHL, but who cares! He's always been dynamic for team Canada, is a powerful skater, and he already plays a man's game. It looks like we'll have to adjust our rankings accordingly and move him up a few slots. On the other hand, Fargo's Josh Birkholz rarely touched the ice and didn't impress when he did. Some team will take a chance on his skating late in the second round, but it was obvious to me that we have him too high right now at 36th overall. Goaltender Mike Lee was far from perfect, but I loved how he rose to the occasion several times and seemed to get stronger in the games biggest moments. That's a great trait for any goaltender to have.

I'm excited for tomorrow because it's my first time seeing Canada while here. There is a buzz going around right now about Ryan O'Reilly and overall the team is stacked (as always). In the second game I'll be seeing the Americans again. Unfortunately Canada and America's opponents don't offer the same excitement, as the Czechs and Slovaks have pretty bad teams that have NHL scouts rolling their eyes.