Canucks defence prospect Kirill Kudryavtsev named OHL player of the week

After putting up two goals and four assists over three games, the 2022 seventh-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks, Kirill Kudryavtsev was named OHL Player of the Week.

The left-shot defenceman’s prettiest play of the week came in overtime on Saturday night when he pulled off one of his patented coast-to-coast rushes ultimately finding the back of the net and winning the game for the Soo Greyhounds.

The best way to describe Kudryavtsev’s play is to call him an offensive-minded defenceman who shows excellent confidence with the puck on his stick and works hard in the defensive zone. As a defender, he’s a pest with an active stick and looks to have added size and muscle compared to what we saw last season.

He can be seen quarterbacking the first power play unit for the Greyhounds and is also spending time on the penalty kill. He has found good chemistry alongside Andrew Gibson this season and should be up with Hunter Brzustewicz as one of the OHL’s top-scoring defenceman this season.

Another fun Canucks tie-in is that Kudryavtsev’s nickname is ‘Eagle’.

After a strong week of offensive production, Kudryvatsev is one of the seven defencemen in the OHL who is producing at over a point-per-game clip. His Greyhounds team is leading the OHL’s West Division with a 9-5-0 record and the power play is clicking at a 26.8% rate right now with Kudryavtsev being the primary puck-mover on the unit.

Kudryavtsev impressed over the past two Canucks training camps and is now back in the OHL to begin to round out his game in what is expected to be his final season before making the jump to professional hockey.

The Russian defenceman will turn 20 years old in February and could even be on the Abbotsford Canucks’ roster late in their season when his OHL playoffs conclude.

All three of the Canucks’ OHL prospects are showing well and the funny thing about those three OHLers is that none of them are Canadian.

It was a big week for the Canucks’ OHL prospects and it’s a nice tip of the hat to see Kudryavtsev earn Player of the Week honours.

You have to imagine that Brzustewicz has his eyes on the weekly award as though he’s the OHL leader in points, he has not earned the honours of player of the week.

Not yet at least…

Kudryavtsev signed his entry-level contract back in March and as we mentioned earlier, you can expect to see him in the AHL soon after his OHL career concludes.