The Calgary Flames have made their second round selection at the 2020 NHL Draft. At 50th overall, they’ve selected Yan Kuznetsov from the University of Connecticut.

Born in Murmansk, Russia and a product of their minor hockey system, Kuznetsov is big (6’4″, 205 lbs) and a left shot defenseman. He made the jump from Russia in 2018, joining the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede before joining the U-Conn Huskies as a freshman last season.

Kuznetsov isn’t an offensive dynamo, but he’s a defense-first, hard-hitting Russian. In a sense, you could think of him as a bigger, left shot version of Alexander Yelesin. He’s a low-risk prospect, but probably might not be destined to be a high-end offensive powerhouse. But considering what the Flames already have in their pipeline on the blueline, that’s probably fine and his selection fills a stylistic hole. He was the 36th-ranked North American skater by Central Scouting and was ranked 30th by ISS Hockey, but was more consistently found in the second round mix on most rankings.

He’s the first blueliner drafted by the Flames since 2017, when they took Juuso Valimaki in the first round.