Alexander Zharovsky Will Play In KHL All-Star Game

As an 18-year-old Montreal Canadiens prospect, Alexander Zharovsky is continuing to impress with Salavat UFA of the KHL, as he now has 8 goals and 22 points in 25 games this season after he had 2 assists in his team’s 4-1 victory over AK Bars Kazan on Friday. However, his strong performance wasn’t even the biggest news regarding him on Friday. A little after his game, it was announced that Zharovsky had made the KHL All-Star game. He will be the only teenager at the event announced as it stands so far, and rightfully so. It was only a few days ago that Zharovsky was also named Rookie of the Month in the KHL for the 2nd time this year.

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It’s safe to say at this point of the season, it’s not just a hot start to the year, but rather he is among the best forwards in all of the KHL. Ever since he returned from injury, he turned a struggling Salavat team around to the point that they went from last place after 7 games to now 7th place in the Eastern Conference and in the middle of the playoff hunt as the league approaches the halfway mark of the season.

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His 22 points in 25 games is now tied for the most points on his team with his teammate Jack Rodewald, but he has played in 8 fewer matchups. The fact that he’s officially made his way up to being the top scorer on his team as a teenager that plays mainly on a 3rd line with some power play time is beyond impressive.  Not to mention, he has also taken on some responsibility as a centre at times, which is a position he wasn’t used to playing in the Russian junior leagues.

It’s very clear the Habs got a special talent at 34th overall of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. With all this being said, he is becoming a fan-favourite prospect that isn’t just garnering attention from the Canadiens fans and media but also around the league as one of the top prospects in the entire 2025 NHL Draft.

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Even Andrei Markov spoke about how the Canadiens have another Russian coming in to play alongside Ivan Demidov in Zharovsky during an interview he had done with RDS’ Pierre Houde earlier this week when he was in Montreal for his tribute night at the Bell Centre on Wednesday. It just shows how much of an impact he is actually having in Russian hockey as a teenager.

In fact, his numbers this season continue to be better than what both Demidov and Matvei Michkov put up in their draft+1 seasons. However, at the same time, when discussing Zharovsky’s stats, it should be noted that he gets the majority of his points on the power play. This is something that can knock down his game a notch when comparing him to Demidov, who barely got any during his KHL season last year. That’s what really separates Demidov from Zharovsky and Michkov at the end of the day. Nonetheless, Zharovsky’s point totals are very impressive and should not be taken lightly, but he’s probably not going to be a superstar.

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His comparison at the draft to Andrei Kuzmenko seems like a bad comparison, but in reality he’s probably closer to Kuzmenko than he will be to Demidov at the NHL. Zharovsky will certainly have his challenges when he gets over to North America, but in his prime, he looks like a projected 25-30 goal, 60-70 point scorer at the NHL level. This is still great production for a top 6 winger, but it just isn’t star forward production in today’s NHL. Meanwhile, Demidov will likely hit 100 points at some point in his career.

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Zharovsky being added to the KHL All-Star game roster is very deserving for just how good he has been. It will be exciting to see how he does in a game featuring just the best players of the KHL.