2025 T25U25: Semyon Der-Arguchintsev is tied at #20

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Semyon Der-Arguchintsev has a solid pro career that should carry him from this year, his last eligible for the T25, through to his retirement. He's not likely to come back to North America, barring some non-hockey reason, so he's a settled KHL player now.

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev	Vitals
Age as of July 1	24.79
Position	C/W
Height	5'11"
Weight (lbs)	171
Shoots	R
Draft Year	2018
Draft Number	76

The Player

Sam McCue, the player he's tied with, had a very good season for points in the OHL this year. He's 20 years old now. Der-Arguchintsev was 20 as Covid loomed and he played a short season in the KHL, but a year earlier, when he was 19, he was 19th in points per game in the OHL. Marco Rossi was first, Jan Jenik was second, Connor McMichael was third and Nick Robertson was fourth. One ahead of Der-Arguchintsev was Noel Hoffenmayer, the defender who was signed by the Marlies for awhile and is playing in the KHL this season.

What does that bit of history mean? Well, when Der-Arguchintsev was glorying in the OHL with an offensive game that was a perfect fit for Nick Robertson's slick shot, most of the players doing similar things were building towards a career not too different from where Der-Arguchintsev is today.

If that's a disappointment, well we've found the downside of all that sunny days optimism about the kidz. Not every top player in the CHL is a star. The pipeline is an optimistic illusion. I am not, actually, going to tell you there's a chance. I'm going to tell you that that player is a valuable hockey player in his own right as he is, not just for what you think he might be in some future that will never be.

We have an excellent measuring stick for Der-Arguchintsev's value for points. Last year in the KHL, Josh Leivo set a scoring record. There's mitigating circumstances for that – most of the foreign players not from North America have left, the remaining goalies are not particularly good, and the "low scoring" moniker the KHL had was always at least partly a product of looking at unrated goal numbers in a league that plays fewer games than N. A. leagues.

Der-Arguchintsev is well down the list at .5 points per game. He's still the same player, playing the same game, setting up whoever can shoot on what was the top team in the East. In this case, the main shooter was Vitali Kravtsov, a Rangers prospect and a player the Canucks are going to try to make into an NHL player this coming season. He has Der-Arguchintsev to thank for that in part. But Traktor did offence by committee, and Leivo was on a star line.

Leivo, who had at least one star season in the AHL is clearly a better player – that was never in doubt – but both of these players, and most of the others mentioned above are AHLers of one sort or another, capable playing one role or another, usually in the top six.

Votes

My method with Der-Arguchintsev, since he went to the KHL is to set him in about the middle of the list and players get ranked over him only if I believe there is a better than 50% probability that they will do better than him when they're ageing off the list.

Many other voters look at it as a player leaving a contest to make the NHL. Dropping out, giving up. No longer of interest as a potential Maple Leaf. So in numerical terms, any probability, no matter how small, that a player could make the Maple Leafs counts for more than a reasoned understanding of player who never will.

Which is why you get mid-teens and NAs as votes. Well. That setup man vs nifty mittens dichotomy plays in too. The Community Vote was exactly the same wide ranging rankings with no consensus.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	17
Brigstew	NA
Species	15
Hardev	NA
shinson93	16
Cameron	NA
Zone Entry	22
Svalbard38	NA
dhammm	16
adam	NA
Weighted Average	21.6
Highest Vote	15
Lowest Vote	22

The Opinions

Brigstew: He was a pretty good AHLer. He’s now a pretty good KHL pro in Russia. He’s also 24 and still small. He is who he is, and I understand the arguments to include him in the top 25 considering how weak the full list of eligible players are but there are simply some guys I like as much that I still hold out some hopes for.

Cameron: I could’ve ranked him as a late ranking, but I don’t see him coming back to North America so I ranked some players who I think have a better chance of helping the Leafs out ahead of him.

Shinson93: I used SDA as my measuring stick player for my “maybes” level, and he was right in the middle of that level. He was strong at the levels below but not quite enough to break into the NHL, but still doing well in the KHL. A young prospect really needs to prove that he’s at least where SDA was at that same level for me to rank them ahead of him.

Svalbard38: The year after he left I had SDA in my #25 spot as a sentimental ranking, a kind of goodbye to a guy I believed in once and had a fun time watching while the fun times lasted. This year Topi Niemelä got that vote from me. All the best to Semyon but I don’t think we’re going to see him in the organization again.

dhammm: SDA and Niemelä are similar to me as guys who got their feet under them in the AHL but went home rather than hold out for NHL-AHL tweener duty, but SDA’s size problems aren’t so extreme as to prohibit depth NHL duty someday if he wants it and comes back. Skilled, tenacious, and undersized forwards still find depth jobs all over the league, even contenders, whereas most teams won’t give depth duties to undersized defensemen right now. This difference in opportunity changes a lot about how I look at these two, and I ranked SDA as a more serious player as a result.

Hardev: A very good pro hockey player. I hope he comes back to North America and we can see how he handles it. One of only six players on this list with a game played in the NHL.

Zone Entry:

SDA
SDA
He was here, then he went away
KHL
Suits his game
Still miss his hyphenated name
AH WELL

There goes our SDA

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