Welcome to the Thursday Ramblings, yesterday was also supposed to be the KHL update BUT I wanted to package them together to raise awareness that the KHL update will be out the third Wednesday of every month this season. Rejoice.

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Recent news:

The Carolina Hurricanes did something we usually see of organizations that give young players very limited playing time

{source}<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>The <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Canes</a> have recalled Clark Bishop and assigned Martin Necas and Haydn Fleury to <a href=”https://twitter.com/CheckersHockey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CheckersHockey</a> <br><br>More Info » <a href=”https://t.co/Nj9G4bVsIw”>https://t.co/Nj9G4bVsIw</a> <a href=”https://t.co/6sqS5d9cfY”>pic.twitter.com/6sqS5d9cfY</a></p>&mdash; Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1052666904555458562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>October 17, 2018</a></blockquote>{/source}

Hayden Fleury being sent down makes a lot of sense, there is really not a lot of room in the top six and he needs to play to develop.

Sending Martin Necas down though, that is on the coaching staff. He has averaged a whopping 9.2 minutes of ice time per game, predominately on the fourth line and off of any powerplay. Now I know getting him top line minutes in the AHL will be better than fourth line minutes in the NHL, but HOW do you not at the least keep Svechnikov and Necas joined at the hip and give them favorable match ups. Hopefully Necas should start to dominate in the AHL and get called up as soon as possible.

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Nikita Gusev is again leading the league in scoring with 22 points in 17 games for the perennial favorite SKA. His contract does end after this season, and Vegas has already reached out to his, but I believe (since he will be 27) he is free to sign a UFA contract anywhere in the NHL. Do not hold me to that though as there may be some clause where he can only sign with Vegas, but I 90% believe this to be a situation like Dadonov where he is free to sign anywhere.

An interesting and often forgotten name occupies the fifth spot in KHL scoring as Mikhail Grigorenko leads CSKA Moscow in scoring with 20 points in 18 games. He posted 23 points in 45 games last year showing immediate signs of progress fantasy GMs hoped for years ago. At 24 his contract runs until the end of the 2019-2020 season and there may still be NHL hope for him later.

On a disappointing note Kirill Kaprizov sits tied for eighth in scoring (sitting 25^th overall), though second on CSKA, with 15 points in 18 games. He really should be in the top three for scoring as he is an elite talent but he seems to be stagnating in the KHL and that is worrisome. Perhaps that stagnation to his game could lead him to look to get out of his contract one year sooner and be on the Wild roster in 2019-2020.

Toronto Maple Leaf Miro Aaltonen sits tied with Kaprizov at 15 points for Ak Bars as he looks to grow his game outside the AHL against better competition. His contract does run out at the end of the 2018-2019 season as he did not want to spend another year in the AHL. It is unknown if he will come back to the Leafs considering how deep they are at centre and the wing, so a trade may help to give Aaltonen a NHL shot.

Anatoli Golyshev, the Islanders sixth round pick in 2016, is currently out with injury but has 12 points in 14 games for Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg an impressive total for the improving forward. The question is, will the Islanders be able to bring him over to North America as his contract is up this season, AND make room for him in their lineup as they have a few bad contracts for a bunch of fourth line players.

Bruins prospect, Alexander Khokhlachev, was said to be looking to come over for this current season but instead signed an extra year deal to stay with Spartak Moskva, the team where he really broke out with 50 points in 52 games. Currently he has 12 points in 18 games, so he has slowed from last years pace but he should pick it up again. He is too good not to.

Former Oilers first overall pick Nail Yakupov actually had a team believe in his ability and was giving him ice time to play hockey, but then he got hurt as has been limited to 12 games. In those 12 games for SKA though he has 10 points, seven of those goals, so there is skill there but is it just being heightened by the talent around him is the question. His contract runs to the end of the 2019-2020 season and hopefully he can come back to the NHL and score many goals.

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