Alec Volchenkov Prospect Scouting Report

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Prospect Scouting Report

Name: Alec Volchenkov

Age: 22

Country: Russia

Position: Center

Handedness: Left

Height: 6’

Weight: 200lbs

 

Volchenkov’s VHLM career was a fairly successful stint. He spent just under two full seasons in the system split between the Saskatoon Wild and the Ottawa Lynx. His first season he signed as a free agent with the Saskatoon Wild but was only able to put up 4 goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 60 games played. After a line boost and some skill development he was able to up his game for the playoffs. In the postseason he recorded 2 goals and 11 assists for 13 points in 18 games on route to winning the Founder’s Cup with the Saskatoon Wild.

 

Following the conclusion of S72 he was eligible for the VHLM Entry Draft as well as the VHL Draft where he was drafted 2nd overall by the Ottawa Lynx and 12th overall by the London United respectively. 

 

In his second and final season of his time in the VHLM he put up some big numbers having 22 goals and 70 assists for 92 points in 72 games played. His game improved in all aspects improving his skill level as well as his stats. His physicality has shown some improvement and some say he’s been training hard to work on his entire physical presence.

 

As his time in the VHLM has concluded he looks to make the jump to the VHL this season to join London. We’ve evaluated quite a bit of game footage and come up with the following pros and cons to Volchenkov’s game.

 

Pros:

Skating: Volchenkov has some pretty serious speed considering his age and development level. His edgework is quite strong and has the agility to turn on a dime when needed.. He uses his skating to his advantage in all lengths of the ice whether it be getting up on the rush for 2 on 1’s or back-checking to prevent odd-man rushes.

 

Passing: Volchenkov is one heck of a passer. He can pick a lane with the narrowest gap to get it over to a teammate waiting on a one-timer or sauce it up over a defender’s stick right on the tape of his linemates every time. His passes are like lasers and he’s been one of the best in the VHLM this past season in this regard.

 

Defense: When watching footage you can’t help but see him in every zone just because he always seems to be intercepting passes, pick pocketing the puck off a player’s stick, blocking passing lanes, etc. He’s a valuable defensive asset to have on any team and combined with his incredible hockey IQ he’s able to predict and shutdown opportunities before they even happen.

 

Faceoffs: We had to throw faceoffs in here because of his resilience in the faceoff dot. He works hard on every draw and it pays off. This past season he won 59.64% of his 2200 faceoffs. He finished 6th in faceoff % out of forwards with more than 100 faceoffs taken.

 

Cons

Discipline: He can take some pretty bad retaliatory penalties that are just unnecessary. He was even thrown out of a playoff game for instigating a fight in the first period. This could be seen as a positive to teammates but for management you don’t want your best players either in the box let alone tossed out of the game entirely. Especially because he’s such a good penalty killer you hate to miss him when you need him.

 

Physicality: Volchenkov isn’t exactly the strongest guy out there or the biggest hitter. He’ll step up when he needs to but if you had to pick a spot in his game that’s the weakest, it would be this. He has shown a bit of promise this past season improving in this area but in order to really shine in the big leagues he’ll need to step up a little bit here.

 

We feel overall that Volchenkov is ready for the VHL. He will likely be a great player for the foreseeable future with London as they look to grow around their young star power. We’ll have to wait and see how he pans out but it’s looking like London made a good choice with the 12th pick, even if they did have to wait a season before his debut.