Dmitri Rashevsky’s KHL surge was a long time in the making

In any given season, the KHL scoring race is filled with familiar names. But in this year’s sea of NHL miscasts and KHL lifers is Dmitri Rashevsky, a relatively unknown prospect until just a couple of years ago.

Back in 2019-20, Rashevsky was a surprise MHL star, garnering enough excitement to land inside Elite Prospects’ top-62 for the 2020 Draft. But concerns about the sustainability of the come-from-nowhere breakout and his age (he was a re-entry) kept him off the NHL radar.

It wasn’t until the 2021 NHL Draft, after playing for five teams across three levels, that an NHL team bit. Within months, the Winnipeg Jets’ decision to pick him with the fifth-round looks like a potential steal.

As it stands, Rashevsky’s second in the KHL in goals with 13 and top-15 in points with 19. If he sustains a 0.95 point-per-game clip, he’ll own the second-best under-22 season in the KHL history, only topped by Vladimir Tarasenko while eclipsing Kirill Kaprizov, Artemi Panarin and Yevgeni Kuznetsov at the same age.