- Nazar Privalov sits second on Tankathon’s 2027 NHL Draft board after a 49-point MHL season
- Two hat tricks in his first eight games took down a mark Nikita Kucherov held for 15 years
- Read below for the four Russians climbing 2027 draft boards and where each one plays next
Nazar Privalov already owns a record Nikita Kucherov sat on for 15 years.
The 6-foot-4 winger ripped off two hat tricks in his first eight MHL games last season, and he did it at 16 years, three months and 30 days old. Nobody in league history had pulled that off younger.
That was just the opening act. Privalov finished with 30 goals and 49 points in 51 games for Krasnaya Armiya, CSKA’s junior club, and he now sits second on Tankathon’s 2027 draft board behind top-ranked defenseman Landon DuPont.
Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff went a step further after CSKA locked Privalov up on a long-term deal:
His game runs through his size. Gabriel Foley of Pro Hockey Rumors described a winger who bulldozes into the low slot and cleans up rebounds, with the work away from the puck being the part that separates him. A KHL debut is the next real test.
Take a look at his 2025-26 reel:
Sergei Skvortsov is the playmaker of the Russian group. The Chaika Nizhny Novgorod winger put up 19 goals and 43 points in 52 games and ranks fifth on the same board. He is also listed at 154 pounds, so the weight room is basically the whole conversation with him.
Andrei Pustovoy scored more than any of them. He piled up 32 goals and 62 points in 52 games for Loko Yaroslavl, finished a plus-52, and won a championship while stuck in a second-line role behind older players. Tankathon has him 13th.
Vladimir Shtyrkhunov is the one North American scouts can watch in person. The right-shot defenseman posted 32 points in 55 games with Krasnaya Armiya, then joined the Shawinigan Cataractes of the QMJHL in July.
Playing in Quebec matters. Privalov, Skvortsov and Pustovoy are all staying home, which means another year of MHL and KHL viewings and the usual guessing about when they can come over.
Shtyrkhunov gets to make his case up close instead, the same path Dima Zhilkin took when he committed to Michigan. The other three Russians will be scouted from a lot farther away.
