From a purely statistical viewpoint the first 18 games of Pavel Buchnevich's 20-year old KHL season have been very impressive. With six goals and 13 points to lead his Severstal team in scoring, Buchnevich is not that far short of early numbers posted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko at the same age. It cannot be understated that they were on better teams, too.
But when you dig deeper and actually look at what Buchnevich has done on the ice so far this season, his start becomes even more tantalizing.
I've said all along that I felt his decision to stay in Russia this year was the correct one.