The Colorado Avalanche Draft Andrei Mironov with the 101st Overall Pick

With the 101st selection in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft the Colorado Avalanche selected Russian defenseman Andrei Mironov. Not included in our Top 100 Prospect Profiles, Central Scouting’s Top 120 European prospects, Future Considerations Top 210, and unranked by many, many more it’s safe to call this an extremely off the board selection for the Colorado Avalanche.

The 20 year old Mironov is a 6-foot-2 190 pound defenseman for Dynamo Moscow in the KHL. Wearing #94 Mironov played an average of 17:28 per night (4th on the roster), as a 2nd pairing defenseman for a competitive Dynamo team. He finished the season with 5 goals, 8 points and 78 shots in 52 games.

Dynamo Moscow finished 3rd in the Western Conference of the KHL last season and lost in the Conference Final 4-1 to SKA. Mironov was also the youngest player on the Russian National team at the World Championships. He was named a KHL All-Star during the 2014-2015 season.

Mironov signed a 2-year contract with Dynamo last April, but that doesn’t rule out a future in North America for the budding Russian blue-liner. In 2013 before his first summer of draft eligibility Mironov told ThinkRussia.com that he would like to continue growing as a player and the NHL could be the place to do it long term:

There is always a place to grow, and NHL is one of the possible future options. Hockey is very different over there partly due to the fact that the rinks are noticeably smaller in size. That results in more physical play. The tactics are quite different and that is what’s interesting for sure. However, I feel like I need to grow strong first to rival existing players of the NHL so I’ll be sticking with Dynamo for now.

Information about the overage draftee is sparse, but examining his game log in the KHL indicates that Mironov came on strong late in the year, earning significantly more ice time as the season progressed. At the end of the season, Mironov was regularly logging over 20 minutes of ice time per game.

It’s clear that the Avalanche believe they have a diamond in the rough with Mironov. The over-age KHLer is an extremely out of character pick for an organization that hasn’t drafted a Russian player since selecting Dennis Parshin 72nd overall in 2004. This once North American-centric organization has drafted twice from Europe this weekend and added 3 Russian players in the last 24 hours.

Some film and Mironov’s career statistics are below, just a heads up… He can throw em