New Jersey Devils: 5 Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect To Target

Rodion Amirov

The Maple Leafs were gifted a 1st-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins for Kasperi Kapanen. Kapanen has been pretty good this season, so it doesn’t look as terrible as it once has, but the package the Penguins paid was hefty.

With that gift of a pick, the Penguins took Russian Rodion Amirov. He spent most of this season with Ufa of the KHL. Tom Fitzgerald said that he took surprise 1st-round defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin because of what he saw when he was scouting Amirov. Clearly, Fitzgerald had a reason to keep an eye on Amirov, and it could come full circle at the trade deadline.

Amirov has a ton of skills that would make him a desirable prospect to any team. His dekes and ability to undo the skates of a defenseman with fakes could make him a phenomenal playmaker at the next level. He’s not there yet, which is unlike Liljegren and Robertson, but he isn’t that far off from being an NHL player. The seeds are being planted, and he’ll probably come to North America in the offseason because things didn’t always go well for him in the KHL.

Amirov has to get a little better at making his own space, but when he’s given space, he makes the other team pay. The Devils would love to have him for his upside, but this would be another trade looking a minimum of two years in the future.