When you dream of something your whole life, and see your chance of achieving that dream come and go before your eyes without being able to intervene or do anything about it, that’s an absolutely crushing feeling. Ask Kirill Slepets. He went undrafted in his 2017 draft year, and was then undrafted once again in 2018. But the Carolina Hurricanes would change that.
But this kid, he’s persistent. He didn’t allow his hopes being crushed twice to demoralize him, and put together a phenomenal 2018-19 season. He scored 12 goals in 17 games in the Russian junior league, played 10 games in the KHL and dominated the World Juniors with a 5-goal performance in that tournament.