From SKA? Not.
FHR announced the composition of the Russian national team, which has begun preparations for the 2021 World Cup in Latvia. There are several unexpected names in it (for example, Vladislav Tsitsyura and Pavel Kukshtel), but one stands out especially - Kirill Kondyrev. The guy is 18 years old and has only one match in the KHL - in February with Torpedo he went 3 shifts and played 2 minutes 10 seconds.
How so?
Cyril is a no-name in adult hockey, but a youth star. The forward of Chekhov's “Russian Knights” has scored 25 goals in the regular season this season. This is the 6th result in the JHL: those who scored more, either fight in the Kharlamov Cup final, or - namely Matvey Michkov - left for the YCCHM.
A year ago, only the official YouTube channel "Vityaz" knew about Kondyrev, showing the skills of his talent from the youth team. But the video was not promoted - 63 views.
This is how Kirill scored against MHC Dynamo last October.
And like this - to the Sakhalin Sharks in December:
And yes, you rightly pointed out:
1. Kirill now plays under the 86th number (like Nikita Kucherov).
2. This is a big center forward.
Perhaps this is the logic behind his challenge: to start preparing a reserve of central strikers.
According to Instat, this season Kirill has an average of 58% at a point. In the scout report on Elitprospekt, they write about Kondyrev that vertical skating is his strongest feature. And in our hockey there are not many such players. In addition, according to the authors of the site, the combination of speed, movement, thinking and club ownership makes him an interesting player in perspective. By the way, Kondyrev was in the top 100 European prospectuses according to the NHL Central Scout Bureau, but he was not chosen in the 2020 draft.
It seems that, taking into account the situation with the central forwards, the FHR decided to closely tackle the issue. Well, why not.
PS As it turned out, more than one young player is training in the national team (the others did not appear in the news of the FHR).
“We held the first ice training session on Monday, and at it we did not have a clear division into three partners,” Kirill Kondyrev told the official site of “Vityaz”. - On Tuesday, a lot of guys from other clubs joined the team, and Semyon Demidov and I were put on the same link, the third with us was Nikita Shalyshkin from the Red Army.
Semyon Demidov, also 18, is the top scorer of the Russian Knights this season (58 games, 50 points; top 20 in the league).
Nikita Shalyshkin is 17 years old! Even in the Red Army, he is far from being the leader - 17 points in 51 matches, 10th place in the team.
“I myself was discouraged by the challenge, after all, the first team, - added Kondyrev. - I'd like to play. The competition is the highest, of course. But head coach Valery Bragin told all of us: "You all have the same chance to go on the ice!" So I plan to make my debut as a national team in the Eurochallenge matches. "
As a reminder, the Russian national team within the Eurochallenge will play two matches against Belarus - on Friday and Saturday.
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