Swing for the fences. It’s what budget teams absolutely need to do if they want to have a shot at being competitive in both the short and long term. It’s also exactly what the Ottawa Senators did when they acquired Vitaly Abramov as part of the return from Columbus for Matt Duchene.
It would have been easy for the Senators to go with the safer option; perhaps a bigger player, or a stronger player, or someone who isn’t at risk of coming down with a case of the unfair and unjustified stigma that is often associated with Russian players. But, no, they went for the undersized, ultra-skilled option in Abramov. If his start to the Rookie Showcase is any indication, that gamble might just pay off.
After putting up a goal and an assist against the Winnipeg Jets rookies on Friday night, Abramov tallied a hat trick on Saturday to propel the baby Senators to a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. It wasn’t just that he was scoring in bunches on Saturday night, but rather how he was scoring; there was a slick tip-in, there was a deft steal and beautiful deke past the goaltender, and there was a fiery one-timer. He was everywhere, doing everything.
While rookie tournament success doesn’t guarantee future success at the NHL level, it’s a tremendously positive sign to see Abramov performing this well just before main camp starts. A third round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2016, Abramov is now 21 years old and looks like someone who isn’t far away from making a consistent impact at the pro level.
For some former Abramov skeptics, that may be hard to believe. This is a player who would have been written off as too small by many scouts in his draft year, despite putting up 93 points in 63 games with the Gatineau Olympiques. He’s a player who many likely still had doubts about even a 104-point campaign in his D+1 year. That’s life when you’re five-foot-nine trying to make it in professional hockey, I suppose. But it also serves as a wonderful and important example for the Senators: When you take a chance on overwhelming skill, good things can happen.
To that point, John Tortorella once said that “safe is death… in reference a certain style of play on the ice, but the same can be said about the acquisition of young players by NHL General Managers. Skill is so often worth taking a chance on, and ‘safe’ often never makes a dent in an NHL arena. There has been and likely will continue to be growing pains for Abramov as he shifts into the professional game, but the tools are all there for him to be an integral piece on the Senators' road back to contention. To not take a chance on those tools would be safe, but it would also likely mean death.
Perhaps the best example of this principle in recent years is the work done by the Tampa Bay Lightning. They found Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the third round and second round respectively, largely because they were willing to take a chance on skill that was deemed “too small… or “too Russian,… which are both horrendous excuses in today’s game. Without jumping the gun, it’s tough not to get the same sort of vibe here with the Senators and Abramov. I'm not suggesting that he's going to be the next Art Ross Trophy winner, but it's impossible to suggest that there aren't other General Managers out there who now look and feel foolish for passing on him back in 2016. Simply, picking him up from the Columbus Blue Jackets was a gamble worth taking.
As Crosside noted on the last thread, “Abramov [is] a player.… Based on this short sample size at the Rookie Showcase, those four words sum things up perfectly. If he continues his strong performance at this tournament, it’s easy to imagine him making noise not only in Belleville, but right in Ottawa too. With the Senators continuing their rebuild, it's important that they look at the things that made Abramov an attractive target and continue seeking those things out in future acquisitions and draft picks. Taking the chance on skill as often as possible is, quite honestly, the blueprint to contention in today's NHL.
Thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart was the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz from 2012 to 2015, and has been the Ottawa Senators writer since September 2019. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.