Any readers packing absolutely elephantine memories will recall that the squat Russian forward Dmitry Zavgorodniy slotted at seventh on our prospect rankings last year too. But blame him not for the stasis.
An addition here and a breakout player there barred Zavgorodniy from grasping a higher rung on our ladder, yet he still posted a stellar and sparkling season while occupying the opposite flank from the underground underrated talent Alexis Lafrenière for the Rimouski Océanic of the QMJHL this past year.
How did we get here?
A mere 151 years after a certain shackled Russian novelist named Fyodor Dostoyevsky shuffled into a labour camp in Omsk for reading and distributing banned books, Zavgorodniy was born in the same city.