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Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson is off to Russia on Friday. The off-season has begun, but only for the players.
One of Howson's objectives on this week-long trip is to meet with left winger Maxim Mayorov and his agent to talk contract. The Blue Jackets want to get him to North America.
Mayorov, you'll recall, is the player many considered a top 15 pick in last year's draft. When he slipped to the fourth round, the Blue Jackets sent three fifth-round picks to the Dallas Stars for the Stars fourth-round pick, taking Mayorov with the 94th overall pick.
As always, getting players out of Russia can be dicey. Mayorov has spent most of this season bouncing between the Superleague and the third-tier league, which is typical for young players in that country. They tend to bury young players in Russia. Alexander Ovechkin, for example, had 13 goals for Moscow Dynamo in 2004-05, a season before he had 52 goals for the Washington Capitals.
Mayorov has one goal and a minus-1 rating in 11 games with Ak-Bars Kazan, but, again, what does this all mean?
Mayorov is probably a couple/few years away from being an NHL player. But the first hurdle is getting him to North America, to see if he can adapts to this style. Mayorov is 6-2, 213 pounds, so that's a start. He's supposedly extremely skilled with the puck, too.
My guess is that Howson will stop off to check out top Russian prospect Nikita Filatov, too. Filatov is a top 10 pick in this summer's entry draft. He'd be top three, for sure, if there was a transfer agreement in place.
-- Aaron Portzline
aportzline@dispatch.com

[blueandwhite]

why do you think they bury young players like that?

[cbuscru77]

Originally Posted by blueandwhite

why do you think they bury young players like that?

To keep their stars in Russia to help their own ticket sales and marketing. They are afraid of losing all their young talent to the west and the NHL. If you remember the huge legal battle over Malkin when he came to the NHL. The Russian Superleague and other major organizations' gripe (and a founded one in my opinion) would be similar to that if Russia were to take Crosby from the NHL. These organizations need a selling point, someone or something to help sell the game and generate revenue.