Kirill Dolzhenkov

September 2026 – Dolzhenkov continued his development in Russia in 2025-26, spending the season with Avangard Omsk in the KHL. The 23-year-old forward has remained a physically imposing prospect at 6-foot-6, but his offensive production has yet to consistently match his size and tools. He remains under contract in the KHL and will continue his development in Russia, making him a longer-term projection for Columbus. Jayd Serdy

July 2025 – Dolzhenkov is a classic case of the young Russian player bouncing around the Russian leagues, seeing inconsistent deployment. In 2024-2025 he saw time at the VHL and KHL levels, 21 and 40 games respectively, and yo-yoed between leagues and usage throughout. He scored seven goals and added three assists for 10 points in the KHL, and went 9-7-16 in the VHL. He regularly saw 15 minutes of ice-time in the VHL, but when he was up in the KHL his ice time swung wildly. A stretch from January 7- 21 saw him play 8:27, 2:10, 6:35, 2:51 and 3:51 during those games.

He towers over most NHL players at 6-6 and carries around 223 pounds of weight, and would make a great addition to the Blue Jackets’ bottom six, providing a battering ram who is no slouch at distributing the puck. Given that he is only 21, the sun hasn’t set on him making his way to North America yet, but being able to reliably value his future fantasy value will be fraught with uncertainty if he continues his VHL/KHL shuffle, and sees unreliable deployment when at the top level. Alex Wyatt

July 2022 – The Columbus Blue Jackets drafted Dolzhenkov in the fourth round (109th overall) in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. Mark Henry