A month into the KHL season, a handful of NHL-drafted prospects are already forcing teams to pay attention. Through October 15, five young players have put together starts worth circling: one taking over from the crease, another driving offense from the blue line, and three forwards filling up the scoresheet in different ways.
Matvei Korotky has been the most productive of the group so far. The 20-year-old SKA center has 10 points in 13 games, with four goals and six assists, building on a solid 2025-26 season in which he posted 27 points (14+13) in 43 KHL games.
The St. Louis Blues picked him in the seventh round, 211th overall, in the 2024 NHL Draft, but the late selection has not stopped him from carving out a real role in St.
Petersburg. His KHL deal expires next May, and he could be in line to give the Blues depth heading into the 2027-28 campaign.
Right behind him, Yegor Surin is keeping his rise on track with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. The 20-year-old has five goals and five assists in 14 games, a 0.71 points-per-game pace that fits the strong starts he has made before.
Surin’s game is built on more than finishing. His physical style and knack for reaching dangerous areas give him a chance to create for others, too.
Nashville took him 22nd overall in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, and he followed last season’s 37 points (15+22) in 57 regular-season games with eight points (3+5) in 22 playoff appearances as Lokomotiv won its second straight Gagarin Cup. His contract in Yaroslavl runs out next May.
Alexander Zharovsky has also kept producing after a breakout year. The 19-year-old Canadiens prospect has two goals and six assists in 14 games for Salavat Yulaev, even if his ice time has been modest and he is currently in a five-game scoring draught.
Head coach Viktor Kozlov, the former NHL forward, showed patience with him before trimming his minutes a bit. Montreal selected the Russian winger 34th overall in the second round of the 2025 NHL Draft.
Last season, Zharovsky put up 44 points (16+28) in 69 games, including the playoffs, and won KHL Rookie of the Year. His contract ends next May.
Mikhail Gulyayev has been one of the few bright spots in a difficult start for Avangard Omsk. The 21-year-old defenseman has already scored twice and added six assists in 13 games, topping his entire regular-season output from 2025-26, when he finished with three points (1+2) in 54 appearances.
With injuries hitting Avangard, he even spent a number of games at forward. Colorado picked him 31st overall in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft, and his skating and puck-moving remain his calling cards.
He is under contract in Russia for the next couple of seasons.
Yegor Zavragin rounds out the list after a strong start in goal for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. The 21-year-old Flyers prospect has a 1.56 goals-against average and a .935 save percentage in six games, with one shutout, while backing up Alexander Smolin.
Metallurg sits atop the KHL standings despite some turbulence, including the suspension of head coach Andrei Razin and the switch to assistant Vladimir Vorobyov, who played a handful of NHL games for the New York Rangers and the Edmonton Oilers in the 90s. Philadelphia took Zavragin in the third round, 87th overall, in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Last season, he appeared in 12 games for SKA and posted a .919 save percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average. His contract runs out after this season, giving him a chance to get more games and more room to keep developing.
Taken together, the five prospects have made their impact in different lanes: Korotky and Surin with offense, Gulyayev from the back end, and Zavragin in net. With Philadelphia, Colorado, Montreal, Nashville and St. Louis holding their NHL rights, all of them will be worth tracking as the KHL season rolls on.
In Other News...
Flyers Young Core Is Raising An Early Concern Philadelphia Can't Ignore
Early-season growing pains have shown up quickly for Philadelphia, with young players such as Porter Martone, Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk all trying to find their footing at the NHL level. For a group that figures to matter to the Flyers future, the first few weeks have been a reminder that development does not always move in a straight line, especially when the pace ramps up right away and the margin for error gets thin.
A shorter preseason appears to have left less time for those players to get comfortable before the games started counting, and that has become part of the conversation around the clubs uneven start. Still, the Flyers issues are not limited to the rookies and second-year types, and simply adding more exhibition games would not have guaranteed a cleaner opening stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Fans Finally Have A Date To Watch For The New Jerseys
The wait is finally over for Flyers fans who have been watching the clubs alternate-jersey rollout with curiosity. Philadelphias Hometown Remix look will get its first on-ice appearance this season, giving the team another visual identity to go along with the regular home set and adding a little extra buzz to the building when the new threads arrive.
The debut is set for the first time the Flyers host Minnesota, and the jersey will show up often enough afterward to feel like more than a one-off marketing exercise. The team has said it will use the alternates 13 times this season, with most of those games coming at Xfinity Mobile Arena, though the full design has still not been formally unveiled after a possible version surfaced back in June. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Have Only Four Real Bright Spots Right Now
The early returns on the 2026-27 Flyers season have been bleak, with the club stumbling to an 0-6-3 start through nine games and struggling to find much traction at either end of the ice. Still, even in a rough opening stretch, a few individual performances have offered some reason for attention, with Matvei Michkov, Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk and Travis Sanheim standing out as the clearest bright spots so far.
Bonks latest opportunity has made him especially interesting to watch, and the Flyers have wasted little time putting him into a prominent role alongside Sanheim on the top defensive pair. Barkey has also re-entered the picture after a lower-body injury and has already chipped in assists, giving Philadelphia at least a couple of young players whose progress is worth tracking even as the losses pile up. [Read more 🡒]