The St. Louis Blues have agreed to terms on a three-year entry-level contract with recent draft pick Nikita Alexandrov. The 18-year old forward was selected 62nd overall in June and has spent the last two seasons playing for the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL.
Despite having Russian heritage, Alexandrov was actually born and raised in Germany while his father was playing in the DEL. He played in the German junior ranks where he was a star offensive player before eventually going 50th overall in the 2017 CHL Import Draft. After two years with Charlottetown the young forward was ranked 29th among all North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, but ending up dropping to the very end of the second round.
Last year for Charlottetown Alexandrov recorded 68 points in 70 games, putting him second on the club only behind undrafted overage forward Daniel Hardie. If he returns to the team in 2019-20 he could very well be looked at as their top offensive weapon. Returning to junior would also allow Alexandrov’s contract to slide foward, something that can happen twice. That seems a likely scenario given his unpolished game, though with some careful coaching there’s a chance he is ready for a professional league sooner than that. Of course, Alexandrov and the Blues could decide that he’s ready for a European pro league right now and send him overseas (perhaps to Germany). That would still allow his deal to slide forward.
Hmmmmm
And the award for the most Russian name of all time goes to you!
What other categories of awards were there?