Grabovsky Grabbing Attention

The Canadiens have recently signed Belarusian prospect Mikhail Grabovsky to a three year contract and the swift and sleek winger is eliciting a ton of excitement amongst Habs fans. The highlight reel evidence surely speaks well for his offensive prowess. The juice on Grabovsky reads like a list of hockey terminology superlatives. He is listed as 5'11" and 174 lbs and different information sources lead one to believe he has grown and put on weight over the course of the last two seasons in which his numbers have also increased. The fact remains his toughness will be questioned until he proves otherwise. What is much less in doubt are his puck pursuit skills and his tenacity and speed. Time will tell whether he is the real deal or just another Oleg Petrov.

Here is how one site rates him.

A capable skater with good form and an above average top speed. He has very good acceleration and skating is definitely one of Grabovsky’s top strengths. He doesn’t hesitate to skate through traffic, but at times has trouble staying on his feet under pressure.He has as an array of shots in his arsenal including an above average wrist shot with a quick release. Grabovsky has a precise slap shot with a quick release, but needs more power. He doesn’t use the back hand as often. He doesn’t hesitate to shoot most of the time, but on some occasions still needs to shoot the puck even more instead of trying to make the perfect play. A gifted player with strong puckhandling skills, he is very effective in one on one situations with opposition players. He is imaginative with the puck and makes precise passes on the tape as he uses his linemates well. One of his favorite moves is to fake a shot and then make a quick feed to an open player. Grabovsky possesses an impressive vision of the ice, seeing plays developing and creating scoring chances for himself and his linemates. He has good hockey sense sound decisionmaking with the puck. Returns to help out in his own zone and at times is even deeper in the defensive zone than some of the defensemen. He works to harass the opposition but is not very effective in the corners and on the boards due to his average size. Although he is aggressive and works hard he has trouble handling bigger opponents. Enjoys and thrives in the open ice environment but has difficulties battling against physically more gifted opponents in the corners and on the boards. Mikhail Grabovsky is a talented scoring line forward who has speed, vision, skill and shooting ability as his primary strengths and his lack of size and ineffectiveness in physical play as his primary shortcomings.

To read the full profile on Grabovsky, click here.