Nikita Filatov of the Columbus Blue Jackets: Where is He?
September 6th, 2010 by Louis Pisano Leave a reply »Nikita Filatov was the highest ranked European player in 2008 and was drafted sixth overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Since then, he has only played in 21 NHL games.
In two U-18 World Championships, he has a gold and silver medal, and in three World Junior Championships, he has two bronze medals along with being named to two tournament All-Star teams.
He was also the captain of the 2009 WJC Russian team.
Last season he and then head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Ken Hitchcock, didn't see eye-to-eye to say the least, and Columbus allowed him to go back to Russia and finish off the season with CSKA Moscow of the KHL.
He received KHL Player of the Week award the week of November 22nd and KHL best Newcomer of the Month award for November.
Niki, or Fili as he is refereed to by friends and teammates as he told me in an interview in 2008 while playing at Syracuse, registered nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points in his 26 games while playing in the KHL. Not the best numbers but still impressive for a youngster.
We all know the kid has talent and just has to find his niche within the Columbus o ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Louis Pisano
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