Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis joined the show to discuss how Russian-born prospect Egor Surin could be a high-reward draft selection at this year’s 2024 NHL Draft.
Colby Cohen: I think we focus a lot on round one in the draft, but your job is to focus on all the rounds. In this year’s draft, it has kind of been talked about as a not-a-deep drive, so is there a Brayden Point or a Brad Marchand, someone you can get in the second or third round and beyond and who just comes out and starts putting together a hall of fame type career?
Steven Ellis: I wouldn’t say “hall of fame” for this guy, but one guy I am watching is Egor Surin out of Yaroslavl in Russia. He’s put up 22 goals and 30 assists for 52 points in 42 games, you see those numbers and they’re good numbers to put up against junior-level players and he’s got unlimited skills it seems like. You look at what Ivan Demidov is doing this year, he’s the top Russian-born player and a top-five prospect this year, but a close second in terms of pure skill I would say is Surin.
Steven Ellis: I have kept him low on my rankings and others have put him even lower and that is because he will just frustrate you with some dumb penalties, he’s on pace for 100 penalty minutes this season and he just gets caught being lazy at points. You know what he can do and sometimes the puck will be right in front of him and instead of rushing towards it he will just stand there and wait for a pass. So this is a guy who really needs someone to push him and be like ‘You really have got to bring this grinder mentality to the game because we know you have the talent’. So if he can just put the effort in, this is a guy who we could look at in a re-draft down the road and look at a potential top-15 player one day. I like him he’s got size, and he can put pucks into the net, he just needs to do it at a consistent pace.
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