2021 FlamesNation Prospect Rankings: #15 Yan Kuznetsov

Kuznetsov is a defensive defenceman, but the hope was that he would start to develop an offensive game. He does have a booming shot from the point, but he needs to be more selective with his shot. Forwards will draw towards him and bends down for shot blocks. Instead of Kuznetsov, playing around those attackers and using stick-handling to find open ice, he will decide to take a shot against the diving attacker. Ultimately, that doesn’t lead to much success. In addition to his shot selection, he will pinch up to try to get involved in puck battles along the half-wall, but he lacks the speed to get involved before the opposition can move the puck away from half-wall and that will lead to vulnerable situations for his defensive partner.

While his offensive game hasn’t grown too much from his draft year, his defensive game has improved. He has solid gap control in the slot and deploys tight man-on-man defense. When there is a loose puck towards the defensive zone blue line and he’s skating in line with an opponent who is looking to skate to the loose puck, he will look to box him out. Kuznetsov uses a quality active stick when defending in the slot to force puck movement. Similar to his speed in the offensive zone, he can be a tad slow with his puck movement when covering a puck carrier who is shifting from right to left. Due to his speed, the puck carrier will find gaps to exploit. In the neutral zone, when defending the rush, he’ll skate towards the center of the blue line and forces the attack to skate along the boards. The only other area that needs development in the defensive zone is his outlet breakout passes, he can be inconsistent with his breakout pass accuracy.