On Saturday, between wedding duties upstate, your friendly Blue Notes proprietor called No. 75 pick Evgeny Grachev a possible steal/sleeper. The Hockey News called the strapping Russian center/power forward a battleship.
Well, on Day 3 of camp, visa cleared, guess who sailed into prospect camp---and said to me: "I want to be like Malkin."
Rangers fans pine for size and he's certainly built like All-Star Evgeni Malkin, and he won't have a problem coming here. No contract in Russia, no desire for the KHL, and eligible for the junior draft. He skated (pretty well) with Anisimov and Kveton in the scrimmage and declared that he'll be in North America this season.
More on Grachev in a feature I wrote for tomorrow's paper.
I'll be back shortly with more observations and rumors from camp...