2025 T25U25: Alexander Plesovskikh is #23

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Every time I've written about Plesovskikh, from the day he was drafted to all the prospect reports I wrote through last season, I've repeated that I find him to be a confusing player. I can honestly say that, as of writing this right now, I still don't know what to make of him. He is a profoundly confusing player. He's played most of the past two seasons in the MHL, with short stints in the VHL.

The Player

In the middle of last season, I said this about Plesovskikh:

So what I still haven't figured out is who Plesovskikh really is at this point. I've seen him pull off, in isolation, some pretty plays – handling the puck, making a good pass, blasting a one timer, plus all the little things in terms of positioning, deflections, working hard, showing some cleverness and smarts, and so on. I would say that he certainly seems like he should be better than you'd think when looking at his stats, considering the league and his age. So is the problem that he isn't consistently able to combine all those isolated skills together? He seems like he should be able to drive a line with his ability to carry the puck, shoot it, pass it, make good, clever little plays... at the MHL anyway.

So why hasn't he?

That's the confounding element of Plesovskikh. He is such a weird player, and I still don’t know what I think of him – though I do know I like him. I haven’t pinned down who he is as a player, so it's hard for me to project him in the future. He seems to have it all in terms of skills. In his draft year I wrote he was inconsistent or bad with his shot, skating, playmaking and defensive awareness. I will say that, through last season, he made some big improvements pretty much across the board in these areas.

The biggest thing I noticed watching Plesovskikh was that he has a very creative mind. I've seen him fire a pass from the middle of the ice to bank it off the boards back to himself and uncork a hard one-timer. It was one of the most out-of-nowhere, audacious flashes of creativity I've ever seen from a prospect at any level – I've never even seen that in the NHL! Likely because it would never work unless it was against poor MHL junior defenses, but still.

Beyond that, Plesovskikh's routes and timing without the puck to get open are perhaps the one skill I’ve noticed the most that I think is the most consistently high level ability he has. He has flashed a cannon of a shot, a huge improvement from what I saw when he was drafted. He works hard, he goes to dirty areas, he plays with a bit of a chippiness. I think his stock is hurt by playing for such a deep organization that he didn’t get a top role, nor a chance to play more in the VHL. In most other organizations, he would. This year will be really interesting to see how he gets used, and I hope he has a prolonged stint in the VHL, maybe even the KHL. If he spends most of the year in the MHL again, even if he's a top player dominating the league, that will be disappointing to see.

But that question I asked before, where Plesovskikh looks like he should be better and more dominant and an all-around more impactful player, "so why isn't he?" That holds me back from adding him to the group of genuinely interesting prospects I think are actually good. I am pretty close to doing it, but I need to see him become something concrete as a player.

If he's smart, Plesovskikh will follow in the footsteps of Grebyonkin – he was a flashy, skilled, big playmaking forward in Russia's junior leagues, who turned himself into a pro by focusing on his net front game, physical play, and being someone his coach could rely on in all situations on the ice. He still had the creative mind, but he focused on being a capable pro player. It took Greb until his age 20 season to really put that together, so Plesovskikh has two years to figure it out. And good news! This summer he signed a three year contract with his Russian organization, so he'll have that time there with one of the top, most competitive teams.

The Votes

Plesovskikh got ranked by 6 of the 10 voters this year, mostly in the 20's, resulting in his final ranking of 23rd. That's a good range for him, even if I ranked him higher there really wasn't much difference of opinion for me from any of the players I ranked from around 15th to 25th. I had him towards the front of my "he's fun, I like him, but I'm not expecting much from him" tier because he does have that fun and flash element.

The thing I'm curious about is how people ranked him relative to McCue, who I see as a similar player in a lot of ways. I think Plesovskikh has a wider breadth of skills than McCue does, but I think McCue is further along the path of figuring out how to being a specialized depth player.

The Opinions

Perhaps not surprisingly, given that Plesovskikh played in a league I'm sure most normal people don't watch, there weren't many people with opinions to share about him.

Shinson93: It’s hard to get a good feel for where Plesovskikh is on his development curve. He seems to have all the skills that you’d want, but doesn’t seem to get rewarded with the opportunities to play higher up and be challenged against stronger competition. He seemed to have a strong playoff run, which is what convinced me that he’s got more when he gets to tougher competition. I’m high on him to break through once he gets a chance, but it might require some luck more than just his own work.

dhammm: I am loath to put any hopes onto a Russian player who isn’t acquitting himself among men in his D+1, but I like his style and his relative youth makes me want to forgive the fact that his MHL production isn’t even that impressive in an absolute sense.

Hardev: I’ll admit that I don’t feel very calibrated on how strong the MHL is as a league. I’ll watch him some more and we’ll see next year. Once again I appreciated all of Brigs’ videos on Bluesky of Plesovskikh, but my biggest takeaway is just how bad the defending is. They might as well ice five forwards and not bother defending rushes in that league. 

One final thing that I'll say, is that in all the interviews and press conferences Toronto's coaching, management and players at their development camp, Plesovskikh did get a shout out as one of the standouts. It wasn't a loud, detailed shout out made with adoring eyes like the top prospects get, but I did put that in my pocket.

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