2012 WJHC: One game scouting report for Nail Yakupov

Russia's Nail Yakupov is Central Scouting's top-ranked player going into the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Yakupov is a 5'11", 161 lbs left-handed winger, This one-game scouting report is from team Russia's 4-3 loss to Sweden in the World Junior Championship's opening round game on December 31st.

Anyone looking to see what Yakupov is capable of need only watch the first 3 minutes of this game.  He was nothing short of phenomenal in those 3 minutes; using both his speed and hockey sense. Unfortunately, penalties hurt the flow of the game; bringing down Yakupov's performance with them.

Note: Mikhail Grigorenko was injured and did not play in this game.


OVERALL GRADE

Despite his strong start, Yakupov earned a below-average grade of 65. His best work was done in the offensive-zone, and he was successful with all of his powerplay events. He had 1 assist, a minus-1 traditional plus/minus rating, and 2 shots on goal.

	10
WINS	37	WINS
EVENTS	57	EVENTS
GRADE	65	GRADE
PLAYER	10
CSB RANK	1	CSB RANK

EVEN-STRENGTH RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Yakupov had an underwhelming even-strength risk/reward rating of 0.59, and a ratio of 1.58 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He engaged in 2.61 events per-minute played, and all of his events were evenly distributed between the offensive, neutral, and defensive-zones. 

	10
POS	30	POS
NEG	19	NEG
RATIO	1.58	RATIO
	10
POS/MIN	1.60	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	1.01	NEG/MIN
	10
EVENTS/ MIN	2.61	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.59	RISK/REWARD
	10
CSB RANK	1	CSB RANK

OFFENSIVE-ZONE RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Yakupov had an offensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.32, and an o-zone ratio of 2.20 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He recovered 5 loose-pucks, completed 3 of 7 o-zone pass-attempts, and was able to get each of his 2 attempts shots through to the net. He engaged in 0.85 o-zone events per-minute of ice-time.

	10
OZ POS	11	OZ POS
OZ NEG	5	OZ NEG
RATIO	2.2	RATIO
	10
POS/MIN	0.59	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.27	NEG/MIN
	10
EVENTS/ MIN	0.85	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.32	RISK/REWARD
	10
CSB RANK	1	CSB RANK

DEFENSIVE-ZONE RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Yakupov had a defensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.16, and a d-zone ratio of 1.43 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. His 0.91 defensive-zone events per-minute played were unusually high for a winger. He lost both his defensive-zone puck-battles, recovered 3 loose-pucks, and was successful with 4 dump-outs. He blocked 2 shots and failed with his only attempt to beat an opposing player 1on1 (deke) in the defensive-zone.

	10
DZ POS	10	DZ POS
DZ NEG	7	DZ NEG
RATIO	1.43	RATIO
	10
POS/MIN	0.53	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.37	NEG/MIN
	10
EVENTS/ MIN	0.91	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.16	RISK/REWARD
	10
CSB RANK	1	CSB RANK

NEUTRAL-ZONE RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

 Yakupov had a neutral-zone risk/reward rating of 0.11, and a neutral-zone ratio of 1.29 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He lost both his neutral-zone puck-battles, and recovered 3 loose-pucks. He was successful with 2 of his 4 passes, and 2 of his 3 dekes. He engaged in 0.85 neutral-zone events per-minute of ice-time.

	10
NZ POS	9	NZ POS
NZ NEG	7	NZ NEG
RATIO	1.29	RATIO
	10
POS/MIN	0.48	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.37	NEG/MIN
	10
EV/ MIN	0.85	EV/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.11	RISK/REWARD
	10
CSB RANK	1	CSB RANK

POWERPLAY RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Yakupov was successful with each of his 4 powerplay events. That said, only 1 of those 4 events occurred in the offensive-zone. 

	10
POS	4	POS
NEG	0	NEG
RATIO	N/A	RATIO
	10
POS/MIN	2.41	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.00	NEG/MIN
	10
EVENTS/ MIN	2.41	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	2.41	RISK/REWARD
	10
CSB RANK	1	CSB RANK