Avalanche selects Nikolai Kovalenko 178th overall

As the Colorado Avalanche have recently explored the Russian markets more thoroughly than any other time in team history, they used the back end of the NHL Draft to load up on more players from Russia. In the sixth round, they added the son of former Avalanche forward Andrei Kovalenko, Nikolai, who played for Yaroslavl in the MHL last season.

The Avalanche did plenty of scouting of Kovalenko’s team as they were doing extensive homework on potential first-round selection Grigori Denisenko. Eventually, the man that Colorado would land, however, would not be Denisenko but the less-touted Kovalenko.

The 18-year-old Kovalenko enjoyed a solid season, producing 31 points (10g, 21a) in 33 regular season games before contributing 12 points (1g, 12a) in 13 postseason contests.

Kovalenko wasn’t widely scouted thanks to his lack of international appearances for Russia and not playing in the KHL. That’s a molotov cocktail for a potential draftee’s stock across the NHL but Colorado has had a strong run of success in Russia recently so it’s no surprise they found comfort with a highly-skilled player whose talent surpasses that of a typical sixth-round selection.

Below are some excerpts from various scouting services.

Black Book:

Kovalenko is a very skilled playmaking winger who has the potential to adapt to smaller ice-surfaces due to the speed
which he processes the play. He’s very good at predicting the movements of the defense in-front of him which allows him to be a step ahead of the play, and this should be emphasized when discussing his play below the goal-line and around the net area. As an example, he’s used his quickness to cut aggressively out from behind the net while using a body fake to cause the opponent defending him to inadvertently switch skating lanes, giving him a direct route to the net, resulting in a high-end scoring chance. Additionally, he doesn’t just use body fakes, he also has very soft-hands and plays with a high-degree of fearlessness, which allows him to cut through defences’ before finding his open-teammates when driving through heavy traffic.

McKeen’s Hockey:

The son of a former NHL forward, Kovalenko is a bright prospect that has already played his first few KHL games. He is gifted with good hands and plays bigger than his size, and has flown under the radar in most rankings. He certainly has all of the tools to become a good NHL player in the future and in my opinion a team will try to gamble on him higher than expected.