At the time Matt Duchene that the trade talks were in full heat, many were readying themselves for a disappointing return; Duchene was a pending UFA, after all. However, there was a lot of excitement when Vitaly Abramov was announced in the return package for Matt Duchene and rightfully so: The 65th overall pick from 2016 was seen as a prized prospect who had amazed at the QMJHL level, done well with the national Russian team and was slowly finding his form in the AHL. But has he developed to expectations so far?
To be honest, at this point I thought we would have seen more than just 3 NHL games from Abramov and that could also be a major reason why he has only moved up two spots from last year and continues to be in the middle of the pack from the readers’ perspective.