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2023 NHL Draft prospect profile: Don’t sleep too long on Timur Mukhanov

Timur Mukhanov may be of the younger prospects in this upcoming draft, but his playing style suggests a player considerably more mature than his age would have you believe.

Birthplace: Glazov, Russia
Date of birth: June 17, 2005
Shoots: Right
Position: Centreman
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 170 lbs.
Team: Omskie Krylia (VHL)

At 5’8″ and 170 pounds, you could put Mukhanov in your shirt pocket, and it wouldn’t even bulge. However, any team drafting the Russian wouldn’t do it for his ability to fend off opposing defencemen through sheer, brute force. Instead, Mukhanov’s game relies heavily on being superior in terms of both smarts and skills.

Born in Glazov, a small town with 95,000 inhabitants in the Udmurt Republic, Mukhanov elected to move 21 hours east to play his developmental years with Avangard from Omsk. A considerable move for a young man, especially when you consider that he could have chosen a much shorter move – only 16 hours by car – out west, to play for one of the major Moscow teams.


This season, he split time between the second-tier VHL, with Omskie Krylia, and the Junior league MHL, with Omskie Yastreby. Clearly dominant in the MHL, Mukhanov ended the season above a point-per-game, while he managed 12 points in the VHL.

Before the season was over, he had crossed off the major milestone of making his debut in the second-best hockey league in the world, the KHL.

Preliminary Rankings

Dobber Prospects: #41
Elite Prospects: #34
FCHockey: #43
Hockey Prospect: N/R in Top 75
Hadi Kalakeche: #33
McKeen’s: #39
Bob McKenzie (TSN): N/R in Top 80
NHL Central Scouting: #27 (European Skaters)
Corey Pronman (The Athletic): N/R in Top 37
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): N/R in Top 64

There is a lot to like about Mukhanov’s game. He has an energetic playing style with excellent skating ability in all directions, not just while going north-south. A crafty player, he uses his hands to his advantage. He has enough skill to pick the locks of opposing defences by combining his quickness with equal levels of intelligence and attitude. Despite his size, he doesn’t shy away from battling along the boards when deemed necessary.

Mitch Brown & Lassi Alanen’s tracking project

Just as for fellow Russian Marat Khusnutdinov, who was drafted in the second round by the Minnesota Wild three years ago, Mukhanov’s lack of size will certainly give him an uphill battle as he makes the full transition into top-tier hockey.

When Khusnutdinov was drafted with the 37th overall selection, he had only played MHL hockey. Hence, it was still difficult to project how he would look even at the second-tier VHL level. Naturally, the competition within the SKA Saint Petersburg system is more than fierce.

In the three seasons that have followed post-draft, Khusnutdinov has improved steadily, going from being a mixed-league – KHL, VHL and MHL – player in 2020-21, to being a KHL regular in 2021-22 and now ultimately looking like a budding star in 2022-23.

Byron Bader’s Hockey Prospecting Tool

If we hypothesize a similar trajectory for Mukhanov, the fact is he has already had his mixed-league season. His next step will be to take a permanent spot on a KHL roster. One thing is clear however: the chase for that roster spot won’t be happening in an Avangard Omsk jersey.

At the beginning of May, Omsk traded for 24-year old left-winger Igor Geraskin from Severstal Cherepovets, a player who is coming off a career year. Apparently Avangard decided that the future was now, and why wait for one of the club’s premier talents to develop when you could make a trade and have the finished project locked and loaded?

The trade between Omsk and Cherepovets means that Timur Mukhanov now will move 35 hours – by car, once he turns 18 and can get his licence – west to practice his craft on the banks of the Sheksna River instead. It’s not everyday you see a one-for-one hockey trade go down, where both players involved happen to stand at precisely 5’8″.

If Mukhanov can find his stride in his new environment and impress his new coaching staff, there could be some gold waiting at the end of the rainbow for whichever team decides to draft him. His current contract situation would give him two more years under Severstal tutelage before being eligible to come over and sign with an NHL franchise.

With a development curve currently ahead of where Khusnutdinov was at in the same age, there could be reason to bring Timur Mukhanov’s name into the conversation once we reach the early stages of the draft’s second day. If developed properly and thoroughly, he could eventually blossom into a centreman with middle-six upside.

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