Paul Berthelot: Vitaly Abramov: The gem of the Blue Jackets prospect system Appreciating just how good Vitaly Abramov has been this season.

Paul Berthelot: Vitaly Abramov: The gem of the Blue Jackets prospect system
Appreciating just how good Vitaly Abramov has been this season.
- Paul Berthelot

Abramov can aspire to become sort of a cam 2.0 (I said that about bjorkstrand and boy was I wrong....for the time being) , but he's not feisty, a small stature works in junior leagues but in the nhl he can get man handled.

I've seen him about 30-35 times in the past 2 years as we go to lots of 'Piques games. He has the speed and has the hands but is not the typical "feisty" small player like Galagher, Marchand, Pageau, etc... What has been working great for him the past 2 years is they always put 1 if not 2 big guys on the same line as him. This year, he's been playing with fellow Russian Trenin and bruising power forward MacEwen. (the real talent is in this order: Abramov > Trenin > MacEwen...Big Mac is successful at the junior level thanks to his physique but he doesn't have the hands or instinct of the 2 Russians...being physical won't be as big of an edge once in the big league...

Rarely you will see Abramov go fight in the corner for the puck but that's fine, it's not his game to do that, Big Mac does that for the line and to a lesser extent, so does Trenin.
Abramov's speed though is great and he can start to go fast on a dime which fools a lot of players from the opposing team.

I wished my Sens would've picked him, since he was playing right next door to them, and they have a history of drafting/trading for local boys (born local or played local)... plus, he dropped down further then I expected...

All in all, his time is sooner then later to make it to the big club, especially with the 'Piques having a down season and traded away all their best players/goalie except for the top 3 (which plays on the same line most of the time!).