Hextall has learned to read Russians

"The Russians are a bit of a different animal,'' Ron Hextall was saying the other day, and for once, thankfully, the context was not about election meddling or foreign policy or even global warming.

Hextall was addressing the difficulty in evaluating teenage talent from there, especially the players good enough to make a KHL roster, even if they might be better served playing elsewhere.

"When they're playing the KHL you've got a kid playing against men in a top league,'' the Flyers general manager was saying. "And they keep them down on a fourth line and give them seven minutes. It's hard to show a whole lot in seven minutes of ice.''

But here's the silver lining if you have an extensive and trusted scouting staff, which is something Hextall proudly believes he does. You can find a guy in the fourth round who might have been picked sooner had he played in an age-appropriate league. You may even find a guy who slipped through the entire seven rounds of the draft because he came to North America late and is a bit older than his draft contemporaries. And you probably won't panic if the 17-year-old you used a first-round pick on struggles a little when he's first pitted against men.

There are three notable Russian forwards in the Flyers Development Camp this week: German Rubtsov, the smallish playmaking 19-year-old whom the Flyers chose in the first round of the 2016 draft; Mikhail Vorobyev, now 20, whom the Flyers drafted in the fourth round back in 2015; and Ivan Kosorenkov, 19, who, despite a stellar season in Juniors in which he amassed 63 points in 68 games playing with touted Flyers prospect Pascal Laberge, was bypassed in the June draft.

Hextall said if he had more picks in the later rounds, that might not have happened. "I wish we had 10, 11 rounds,'' he said. Instead, Kosorenkov was invited to this development camp, where he has looked as if, well, he should have been drafted.

At 19, he is an overaged junior with a nice array of offensive weapons. One rap on him is that he has not yet committed to a 200-foot game, another is that his numbers are bloated because he is playing with players who are younger. But Kosorenkov has been productive in every league he has played in.

That has not always been the case for Vorobyev, or for Rubtsov too. Last season Vorobyev had just three goals and eight assists in 44 games with his KHL team Salavat Yulaev Ufa. But centering a line that included Kirill Kaprizov in the World Junior Tournament back in December, his 10 assists tied him for fourth among all players in points and signaled, to Hextall, a readiness for the North American game.

"Vorobyev popped at the world juniors when he was playing with his peers,'' said Hextall. "Our guys really liked him in his draft year. We got him in the fourth round because he was playing in Russia and he was hidden a little bit. But again when you see a kid playing with his peers it's a lot different than playing in the KHL. I think you saw that a little bit too with Ruby.''

Ruby is of course German Rubtsov, the Flyers 2016 first-round pick, a choice that was met league-wide with equal parts excitement and doubt. A few weeks past his 19^th birthday, he struggled mightily at the start of his first KHL season, and it carried into a rather unimpressive stint at World Juniors. With a body that still looks more boy than man, Rubtsov reclaimed his game once he left the KHL and joined Chicoutimi of the QMJHL. Playing with and against peers, he registered nine goals and 22 points in just 16 games. "I felt,'' he said the other day through an interpreter, "very comfortable.''

Hextall said Rubtsov's physique had "changed quite a bit since we drafted him,'' but to the naked eye it still looks as though he'd be better served adding to that frame back with Chicoutimi rather than exposing him to another season playing against older and more mature players in the AHL or NHL.

"We do have the AHL option with him,'' said Hextall. "We have the Junior option with him. And I guess the NHL. We'll see where he's at come September.''

Asked through the interpreter where he'd like to end up, Rubtsov smiled as if he'd been pranked.

"It's trick question, right?'' he said through the interpreter. "Everyone wants to play NHL.''