Minnesota Wild: Nikita Scherbak worth taking a risk to acquire

The Minnesota Wild have been largely inactive on the market, despite plenty of decent options coming through the waiver wire. The latest is the Montreal Canadiens’ Russian winger, Nikita Scherbak.

Now, this would be a wise signing for the Minnesota Wild, not just because the player appears to have some degree of untapped potential, but also because they have a group of Russian talent that will hopefully all be hitting their roster within the next few years.

Having an established player (by that point) that speaks their native tongue could help massively to integrate them into the team and limit the teething problems, given there may well be a language barrier for a while.

Far from just recruiting Nikita Scherbak to be the team translator, he has shown to be an effective player in the AHL; 95 points in 145 outings with the Laval Rocket attests to that.

He seems to be one of those prime examples of a player that has fine form in the American Hockey League, but either hasn’t been given the chance to truly show the same in the NHL or just can’t cut it.

It’s safe to say that no team likes to lose a first round pick for free, but the Montreal Canadiens may well be doing so with their 26th overall pick from the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

At 6’2″ and 192 pounds, Nikita Scherbak certainly has size to be useful in the NHL, even as the league is moving away from bigger power-forwards. He could join a contingent with the Minnesota Wild that has a lot of that sort of size already.

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If he were to join up with the Minnesota Wild, you’ve got to believe it’d go one of two ways; head coach Bruce Boudreau would be bothered by his questionable positioning and poor skating stride, or the coach would see him as a personal project and take him to greater heights.

We haven’t often seen diamonds in the rough shined up by the Minnesota Wild though, so maybe it’s a stretch too far to think they’d take a bet on him.

I personally think it’d be a smart move even if it’s just for another asset they can throw in on a trade down the line!

Not every risk pays off but when it comes to big guys like Scherbak, sometimes the change of environment is all they need to unlock their true potential, which is definitely there under the weight he carries from being drafted by the Montreal Canadiens.

Take the risk, Paul Fenton. Bring him to the Minnesota Wild!