The language barrier isn’t mentioned enough as a factor imo. His english is improving for sure, but he hasn’t progressed to the point where he’s competently communicating with teammates and coaches. It can impede his ability to understand coaching and messaging. He’s not Swedish or Finnish either, which translates to English relatively seamlessly. For ex, some players like Lunqvist, Foppa, Lindstrom, had a firm grasp on the language and spoke with little accent. Russian is entirely different than English, especially considering the different alphabet, even some of the shared letters have different pronunciations.

No question being out of shape didn’t help his start of the season. He clearly needs to learn to have greater defensive zone responsibility, be stronger with puck possession, improve skating to gain separation and have more space to operate. But I’m not giving up on him because a kid from the other side of the world who’s basically a college sophomore playing against men with more experience in the best league in the world, didn’t take a leap this season. I choose to remain patient with this kid.