7.17.2013

Trading asset or future in black and gold? - Alexander Khokhlachev

via windsoressexsports.com

When Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli tried to trade for Jarome Iginla earlier this year, Alexander Khokhlachev was about to be a Calgary Flame. 
Luckily for him and Matt Bartkowski, Iginla wanted to play for the Penguins and the Bruins traded Cody Payne and Lane MacDermid to Dallas for Jaromir Jagr.
That leads me to the main topic of this blog entry: Will he be a trading asset in the future or is he likely to play for the black and gold ?


At the age of 16, Khokhlachev was drafted by the Windsor Spitfires and left his hometown Moscow, where he played for Spartak's junior team,  to dress in the Ontario Hockey League.
After a remarkable debut season for the Spitfires, scoring 34 goals with 42 assists in 67 games and 20 points in 19 playoff games, he was picked 40th overall by the Bruins in the 2011 NHL draft.
On the way to increase his points total the season after he got traded by the Bruins, Khokhlachev suffered a season-ending injury that forced him to miss the playoffs in 2012.
With 69 points in 56 regular-season games the young Russian barely missed his rookie season numbers. 

"Koko", know as talented scorer with great hockey sense returned to his hometown club Spartak Moscow  at the start of last season due to the NHL lockout.
In the Russian KHL, which is supposed to be the seconds best league in the world, Khokhlachev reached 7 points in 26 games.
Back in Canada he scored 48 points in 29 games for Windsor, before the Bruins ordered him to Providence for the upcoming trade with the Calgary Flames.
As we all know things went a little bit different and the 19-year old Russian made his first 11 games for the P-Bruins scoring 2 goals with 1 assist.
Khokhlachev was safely dissapointed when he had to watch the AHL playoffs from the stands, especially with the happenings of March back in mind.

Now he needs to look forward and focus on his first full AHL season with the Providence Bruins.
There is no doubt that the young Russian has the potential to be a Top-six NHL forward at some point in his career, though he has yet to prove that at the AHL level.
Beeing one of the Bruins most skilled offensive prospects, one can only hope that he's ambitious enough to prevent the management from trading him to another team howsoever.
Iginla in the Top-six is just a one, maybe a 2 year solution. If Koko is able to prove his talent in the minors at the same time, he may have a chance to fill that spot.
The other, less risky possibility would be trading him to another team for an experienced winger as Chiarelli already traded in March.

This time next year we'll hopefully be smarter and able to answer the "Khokhlachev question" or at least attempt a certain outlook.
For those of you who won't be able to visit a P-Bruins match next season, "Koko" likely be part of the Russian team at the World Juniors in December/January (TSN and NHLN).
He already won the silver and bronze medal with Russia in the past 2 World Juniors, scoring 5 points each in 7 games.


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