Ovchinnikov had himself a game (see the rest of the thread for his 5-pt night). He is leading his team with 30 pts in 19 games of Russian junior (MHL). The team has played 27 games.
7th in that league in points, but 1st in points per game. Tough to say what that means though, I looked through the last few years of point leaders in that league and none of the names really jumped out at me. Still, better than not being 1st in points per game.
I'm going to go with cautious optimism. Like, I'm excited to see our 5th rounder, who probably should've been a 3rd round pick, is working out nicely and playing a style that I find useful and pleasing to the eye.
The 5 pt night sort of shifts situation slightly into mirage territory. He recently got a taste of KHL minutes, which was paltry at best (his first three games' TOIs were 25s, 45s, 19s, before getting 6-7 min the next two. KHL is hard on youngsters like that because team owners/coaches need to win or else bad stuff happens when there's no money.).
Oh hey, he's at 32 pts in 20 games now (KHL stats updated ahead of EPs). He's playing all three phases of the game in junior and outpacing his 20-year old teammates as an 18-year old.
I really like this past Leafs draft class so far.
