Canes pick Russian in CHL import draft
By Lethbridge Herald on July 1, 2020.
Lethbridge Herald
The Lethbridge Hurricanes made one selection at the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft Tuesday.
Picking 48th overall the Canes picked up 2003-born forward Nikita Chibrikov.
The 17-year-old from Moscow spent the last season with MHC Dynamo Moscow junior team of the MHL, scoring three goals and 16 points in 33 games.
Chibrikov added one assist in three playoff games.
The Hurricanes currently have incumbent European skaters — foward Oliver Okuliar and defenceman Danila Palivko — on their roster.
“First of all, we really like the two guys (Okuliar and Palivko) that we have, but on the scouting side of it we just decided that we were going to pick the best player and Chibrikov is one those key guys and an elite player,” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt in a release. “We are really excited about the possibility of getting Chibrikov into our line-up at some point. He’s highly skilled, he can make a play, he can skate well, he can score, he has the full package but we’ve got a lot of work to do to see if we can land him.”
The five-foot-10, 167-pound left-shot right-winger represented Russia at the 2019 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge where he totaled eight points (three goals and five assists) in six games.
Chibrikov also appeared in 13 games with the Russia U17’s during the 2019-20 season, scoring five goals and 15 points.
The Hurricanes have Okuliar and Palivko, but were eligible to select one player in the CHL Import Draft due to Okuliar slated to be an overage player for the 2020-21 Western Hockey League season.
The Canes can bring all three players to their 2020 training camp.
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