With great speed and puck skills to create offense in an exciting end-to-end fashion, Grigori Denisenko brings a purely offensive skill set to the draft that should see his name called before the Friday selections wrap up.
Slippery and agile with the puck on his stick and one who eats up space quickly in open ice, Denisenko gains the zone with a lot of momentum that gets him going on a downhill mission to the net. He is a nifty puck-handler that can undress defenders with his quick hands, shoulder and head fakes, and overall shiftiness.
He can take a defender wide, but when given the opportunity he'll opt for a sharp cut to the middle to clean a better angle to leverage his sniping ability and deking skills. He's simply an up-tempo winger with excellent vision and an array of shooting skills that makes plays at a very high rate of speed.
After shredding the Russian ranks as a 14 and 15-year old, Denisenko has spent the last two seasons with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the MHL, Russia's top junior league, posting back-to-back nine-goal, 22-point seasons. Scouts would've preferred to see a higher output on paper, but there is no denying his incredible upside as a tantalizing game-breaker.
With the look of a legitimate top-line player when he applies himself, Denisenko will need to show more commitment to his play off the puck. He leaves much to be desired defensively, too often showing disinterest in applying backpressure and relying on others to do the heavy lifting. He'll get to his spot and wait for the chance to exit the zone, and with that comes some sleepiness where he'll lose sight of his assignment that leads to the opponent extending their offensive zone time.
If coaches can get him using the same gear when backtracking as he does when he takes a pass, that simple support alone will improve his overall value.
Regardless of the noted areas where he must improve, there is significant buzz around Denisenko's high-end potential, making him one to watch at the next two World Junior Championships as he plays out the remaining two years on his Russian contract.
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For more on all the youngsters in the Sabres pipeline, check out Kris Baker's website, SabresProspects.com. You can also follow him on Twitter (@SabresProspects).
