Filatov Fiasco: The Departure of Hockey’s Top Prospect

November 19th, 2009 by Ed Cmar Leave a reply »
Well, I guess we all received the answer to the question of whether Nikita Filatov was going to log more Time On Ice—TOI.

Oh, there will be ice time logged, but, it won't be here in Columbus—heck, it won't be in North America, in the National Hockey League—NHL.

I don't know about you, but, after something this stunning occurs, my mind tends to reel—I need a little time to process what just happened.

In a startling development, Nikita Filatov opted to leavethe Columbus Blue Jackets to return to his native Russia and play in the Kontinental Hockey League—KHL—for CSKA Moscow, 19 games into his rookie campaign.

Wait, wasn't this the same player who was rated the No. 2 prospect in the draft, behind Steven Stamkos, by the International Scouting Service (ISS)? Wasn't it also the same player who was rated the top prospect—in the later instance, prospect in the sense of not yet playing full-time in the NHL—in all of hockey by every major publication, Hockey's Future, The Hockey News, et al?

Wasn't this also the same player who coach Ken Hitchcock compared to a young Pavel Bure? It just didn't work out, and he's leavin ...

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