Sheng Peng
What do the San Jose Sharks have in Igor Chernyshov?
The 2024 second-round pick just signed with the Sharks and appears ticketed for the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit next year.
Before the 2024 Draft, San Jose Hockey Now spoke with an NHL scout about the 6-foot-3 Russian winger.
This scout created a mini-kerfuffle with his pre-Draft evaluation of Chernyshov’s defense.
“He wants to go out and score goals and hit people and whatever. Defensive play is not his strength,” he said. “I can’t overstate like how bad he is defensively. He is a one-way forward.”
SJHN checked in with that same scout and two other NHL scouts this week about Chernyshov’s defensive game, what he’s best at offensively, his ceiling, and more.
Defense?
“I’d still stick by it a little bit,” Scout #1 said about his criticism of Chernyshov’s defense, “but some of it can be attributed to the Russian offensive slant style of play.”
He stressed that just because Chernyshov isn’t great defensively now, that doesn’t mean he can’t get a lot better — he’s just 18.
“I don’t think he’ll have any problem eventually being an adequate D-zone guy. Just think it may take him some time in North America to adjust,” he said. “There isn’t an outright refusal to do it, which would be a problem. It’s just not his thing.”
Scout #2 saw something more: “He provides some defensive value — pretty smart off-puck player.
“He is okay,” Scout #3 said. “I see no big problems.”
Offense?
Of course, the San Jose Sharks didn’t make Chernyshov the first pick of the second day of the Draft for his defense.
They’re hoping that he develops into a high-scoring power forward.
For what it’s worth, Scout #1 is a big fan of the strapping winger offensively.
“Just bull in a china shop-type forward. High skill. High sense. When he wants to get after it and compete, he is a monster physically, very hard to contain. He’s a big dude, soft hands, smart,” he said. “But in terms of a competitive offensive player, he has all the tools, good shot, skill, touch, power forward elements.”
Scout #2 agreed: “Big, fast, strong shooter. Dangerous off the rush, that’s his biggest strength…More of a net front guy on the cycle.”
Ceiling?
That said, Scout #3 isn’t as high on Chernyshov’s NHL future.
“I don’t see huge upside, but he can be a bottom-six energy power forward,” he said.
Despite Chernyshov’s MHL production, 13 goals and 15 assists in just 22 games, this scout was not impressed with his ability to drive play.
“At his age, he should be a game-changer on his line in the MHL, if he wants to be a star player in the future,” he said. “Lack of creativity may be his main problem.”
This scout actually credited fellow San Jose Sharks prospect Yegor Rimashevsky, 2023 seventh-round pick, with a lot of Chernyshov’s offensive success: “You can watch his games without Rimashevsky and he was lost.”
Scout #3 sees Chernyshov as more of a crash-and-bang complementary winger on a line.
Scout #2, who’s higher on Chernyshov, didn’t seem to disagree.
“Offensive game is quite one-dimensional — just rush attacks where he shoots, not much else. Lacks playmaking vision,” he said. “He drives play up the ice, but it’s just individual end-to-end rushes that end with his shot — which works in the MHL but may not work at higher levels.”
For what it’s worth?
These varying opinions of Chernyshov are par for course for a second-round pick. There’s a lot to like about his game — and there’s a lot to work on. You can say this pretty much about every 2024 Draft pick, except for maybe Chernyshov’s famously well-rounded development camp linemate Macklin Celebrini.
These three scouts are giving you Chernyshov’s 18-year-old base — it’s up to him to make himself better and establish himself as a second-line scorer or fourth-line grinder or something else in the NHL.
“There are a lot of similarities between him and Emil Hemming, who was taken a few spots earlier,” Scout #2 mused. “Right shot, shoot first, power forward types with middle-six complementary winger projections. I actually liked Cherny quite a bit more than [No. 29 pick] Hemming, I was a bit surprised they were taken in that order — Russian factor probably in play.”