Ilja Nikulin

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Hey Thrasher fans, I have the Thrashers in a FHL league and I am wondering what is happening with Nikulin? is he still considered a good prospect? what's his status in the organization? Thanks

[Holly Gunning]

He's still a good prospect, however, there is a question of whether the organization can get him over to North America. He was offered a contract two summers ago, which he turned down.

In my opinion, he needs to sign this year if he's going to make the transition at all.

[dunwoody_joe]

Holly,

Do you have an updates on his progress. I cannot find much recent info.

[Holly Gunning]

I recently talked to the Euro scouts, who said he was doing real well. Didn't go into much detail though. What is there to say about defensemen most of the time though anyway, if they are doing their job, they're flying under the radar.

[ATLThrashers15]

I spoke with a Euro scout to and said he definitely has what it takes to be a top 3 NHL defensemen, but as Holly eluded to earlier, the problem is to get him over here.

[dunwoody_joe]

Why should that be such a problem. If he has that type of future, I would think that the pot of gold leads to Atlanta for young Ilja.

A legit top 3 defenseman in the NHL can earn some serious coin while challenging himself against the best. It's his ticket out of mother Russia.

I'll bet that if we don't see him this next year that we may never see him!

[Holly Gunning]

Do you realize the kind of money players are making in Russia these days? It's not quite NHL money, but it's approaching it.

I think it will effect the draft going forward, teams will be less likely to take Russians in the later rounds because they won't be certain they will be able to sign them to contracts.

[Hossa]

Originally Posted by HollyG

Do you realize the kind of money players are making in Russia these days? It's not quite NHL money, but it's approaching it.

I don't know the exact figure, but I believe Oleg Tverdovsky is making between 1.5 million and 2 million this year in Russia. That's a pretty significant chunk of coin.