The New Jersey Devils landed a really nice player in the fifth round of the 2019 NHL Draft when they selected Arseni Gritsyuk of Russia. He is a very good left-handed winger who hopes to one day bring his talents to the National Hockey League.
New Jersey hopes for the same because that would mean that he became a really good player. For a fifth-round pick, he has been really good everywhere he has gone since the draft. He was named to be the Rookie of the Year in the Kontinental Hockey League on Thursday.
That is an outstanding honor as the KHL is not an easy league to play in. It is probably the hardest league to play in the world besides the National Hockey League so having success there means you are a really good player.
Gritsyuk had 22 goals and 16 assists for 38 points in 52 games played over there. For a first-year player, that is outstanding. He will probably continue to develop by playing over there for a few more years. However, you never know when the Devils decide to bring him to North America.
Avangard's 21-year-old forward Arseny Gritsyuk (22 G, 38 Pts, 52 GP) receives The Alexei Cherepanov Award as KHL Rookie of the Year!#KHLAwards pic.twitter.com/NawG7krPhZ
— KHL (@khl_eng) May 19, 2022
#NEWS: Our prospect, Arseny Gritsyuk has been named KHL Rookie of the Year!https://t.co/s1Yv2Wunza
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) May 19, 2022
Arseni Gritsyuk is a very exciting young prospect for the New Jersey Devils.
Gritsyuk also made an impact at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. He was part of the Russian Olympic Committee team that won the Silver Medal. He scored one goal and two assists for three points in the six games that he played there.
Whether or not a great player from the KHL can come over and be an impact player in the NHL is hit or miss. We have seen players like Artemi Panarin and Kirill Kaprizov do extremely well and we have seen guys like Nikita Gusev and Vadim Shipachyov completely flop.
With that in mind, Gritsyuk is a former fifth-round pick so he is worth seeing what is there. It is never expected that a fifth-round pick will be an impact player but if one becomes one, it is free money. The Devils would love to see that for this kid.
Wingers are something that New Jersey needs too. It isn’t just in the top-six either. They could use more wingers all over the place. Gritsyuk is someone that could come up one day and provide some organizational depth with both New Jersey and Utica.
There are a lot of young prospects in this organization. Of course, people are excited about guys like Luke Hughes, Shakir Mukhamadulin, Fabian Zetterlund, Alex Holtz, and Nikita Okhotiuk amongst others but some of the prospect depth is exciting as well. Gritsyuk fits into that and this accomplishment in the KHL makes him even more fun to think about.