Rating: 84
Height: 190cm/6'3"
Weight: 90kg/198.0 lb
Position: Right Wing
Shoots: Left
Born: 1990-04-13
Birthplace: Kazan, Russia

Kiril Petrov is a talented young prospect who has size, speed and skill. Standing at 6’3 and almost 200 pounds, the young forward is hard to knock off the puck and can deliver an impressive physical presence, if properly motivated. Still, he needs to better utilize his size and play better physically, as he is still not fully aware of his size and the ability that comes with it. In regards to his speed, Petrov is a very strong skater with impressive quickness. He is also a capable puck handler and when combining lal three elements of size, speed and skill, Petrov is capable of making the most with very little room. Beyond his soft touch, Petrov also sees the ice well, but does need to further step up his game to make quick and reliable decisions, since at times he tends to make errant passes under pressure. Even his errant passes tend to generate from some good ideas, but they are dangerous for his team and can at times make costly turnovers. Another significant development area for Petrov is his defensive play, as he tends to float and wait for a breakout instead of falling back and using his physicality to help out his teammates. Overall, Petrov is an impressive and tempting package of physical presence, skating ability and soft hands, but who needs to further improve his defensive play and his decisionmaking.

Kiril Petrov has first round skills and size, but also carries too many intangibles to be selected that early in the draft. The primary intangible is whether he would be willing to do what it takes to make in the NHL, meaning whether he would be willing to leave Russia and develop in the AHL before getting his NHL shot. He has the quickness and the size to succeed on the smaller ice surface, but the AHL could be beneficial for a player of his type to further refine his physical play. He is currently in a comfortable situation in Kazan, but that can change overnight. The main thing the NHL club management has to worry about is not whether he will remain in Kazan, but whether he would be willing to take less money to come to North America .If he continues to improve, there will be plenty of other Russian clubs knocking on his door with financially enticing offers, thus his comfort in Kazan may not be the biggest issue, but his ability to command an NHL caliber salary at a young age. Beyond these intangibles, Petrov also needs to continue to develop his defensive play and further improve his already strong decisiomaking and passing skills. Overall, however, he is a talented and very tempting prospect who could be a top line power forward, but who could also become an Alexander Polushin type player who showed a lot of potential early on but simply did not pan out.
RP Draft Projection: early 2nd round