Aydar Suniev

June 2023 – Suniev was selected 80th overall by the Flames. Pat Quinn

April 2023 – While Bradly Nadeau has gotten the majority of the focus as a 2023 draft-eligible out of the historically dominant 2022-23 Penticton Vees team, his teammate, Aydar Suniev is equally intriguing as a prospect, if not more so. Suniev’s skating is… poor. It is in contention for the worst in the 2023 draft class (among top-100 talents) with Matthew Wood. His stride is extremely wide, choppy, and inefficient, and it presents by far the biggest hurdle in his development. That said, Suniev has developed an array of adaptive skills to compensate for his poor skating. He is tenacious all over the ice, which makes him a powerful puck carrier, pestering forechecker, and a defensively engaged winger. His off-puck habits are very strong. He’s a strong back checker, is consistently well-positioned, finds space offensively very well, and consistently attacks the slot and the middle lane offensively. He is an intelligent player who leverages his brain to create advantages. Just how translatable this will be as he makes a big jump in competition remains a bit of a question. If his development were up to me, I would glue him to a high-end skating coach and give him a few years. His foundation of awareness, sound habits and positioning, deadly release, excellent puck protection mechanics, and consistent work rate is a solid one to build on. He has an identity as a player and I can see what type of middle-six player he could become with significant skating improvement. Sebastian High