Enjoying a strong preseason so far for the New Jersey Devils, rookie forward Arseny Gritsyuk is drawing praise from more than just the local eyes of Devils fans.
Assistant coach Sergei Brylin had good things to say about the 24-year-old after his unofficial NHL debut against the New York Rangers, but so did his former KHL coach with SKA St. Petersburg, Roman Rotenberg.
"I spoke with Senya. He's happy he scored. But we need to keep working. We discussed all the details that need to be improved. And he himself knows what he needs to work on. He's a great guy. Senya is a very gifted player," Rotenberg was quoted as saying of Gritsyuk by MatchTV.
"With his talent, if he wants to, Gritsyuk can reach the level of any hockey player in the world. I won't name any big names right now. You all know them. But with the right work, Arseny can make rapid progress. He's physically gifted and talented. We've seen few players equal to Gritsyuk."
Gritsyuk came out of the KHL in Russia highly regarded for his speed and skating, which make him a natural fit for this Devils team that already has Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Luke Hughes, if and when he signs. Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and Paul Cotter are all pretty fast in their own rights, too.
As for the shot? Well, we've already seen what Gritsyuk can do from an opportunistic scoring position when he blasted a power play one-timer past Rangers goalie Dylan Garand on Sunday.
Rotenberg, perhaps for good reason, passed on throwing names out there, but we've seen a number of Russian forwards adapt to the North American game and take over in recent years. Kirill Kaprizov and Matvei Michkov, specifically, come to mind, and Ivan Demidov and Gritsyuk could be next on that list.
As a former fifth-round pick yet to make his NHL debut, nobody seems to talk about Gritsyuk in that way, but Kaprizov and Nikita Kucherov emerged out of nowhere after being drafted outside of the top-50 of their respective drafts.
Time will tell if Gritsyuk can become that kind of player for the Devils, but he's off to such a good start that his former KHL coach is already publicly propping him up.