Carolina Hurricanes Prospect Profile: Yegor Korshkov

The Carolina Hurricanes acquired right-winger Yegor Korshkov from the Toronto Maple Leafs alongside defenseman David Warsofsky in exchange for Alex Galchenyuk.

Over the course of the past few days, Don Waddell has been doing some good old-fashioned wheelin’ and dealin’ on behalf of the Carolina Hurricanes.

First, Donnie Franchise traded misfit winger Ryan Dzingel to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for noted enforcer Cedric Paquette and Alex Galchenyuk. The next day, Galchenyuk was placed on waivers; any team could’ve picked him up free of charge, aside from his salary/cap hit of $1.05M.

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Galchenyuk cleared waivers 24 hours later, and within hours, the Carolina Hurricanes shipped him off to Toronto and picked up the younger brother of the Head Coach of the Chicago Wolves, and the former 31st overall draft pick in 2016.

Korshkov, currently playing for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL, has had a bit of time in North America. The Russian winger played a single game for the Toronto Maple Leafs (in which he scored his first NHL goal) last season, and has played a total of 53 games for the Toronto Marlies (9 playoff games in 2018-19, and 44 regular season AHL games in 2019-20.

Korshkov’s campaign in the AHL last season saw him net 16 goals and 9 assists for a total of 25 points in 44 games played. This season in the KHL, however, Korshkov has registered (at the time of writing) 16 goals and 15 assists for a total of 31 points in 53 games played.

I spent about 3 hours after the Carolina Hurricanes’ game last night watching film of Yegor Korshkov throughout his career, but mostly with his stint in the AHL.

Korshkov is a tall winger (6’4″) with soft hands and excellent hockey IQ, but does need to pack on a few pounds (he currently weighs 187lbs.) and hit the weight room if he wants to play in Rod’s ‘defense first’ system of hockey. Bill Burniston should have no problem getting him beefed up, though.

As far as what kind of comparable we can put on Korshkov at this point in time, I’m given shades of a Zach Sanford or Danton Heinen type of player. Capable, dependable, but not quite prolific. Solid offensively, could be better defensively, but with some added weight and strength, could be good on either the man advantage, or the penalty kill.

I could see Korshkov making the trip back to North America and being a decent middle-6 option for the Carolina Hurricanes in a year or so. The 24-year old wasn’t given a huge chance to play in a ridiculously stacked Maple Leafs roster, which is likely the reason they moved on from him in the first place.

At the end of the day, Don Waddell and the Carolina Hurricanes turned a winger who didn’t really fit in here into a solid, physical presence in Paquette, an AHL defenseman who now gets to play for his older brother, and a very solid young prospect who just might become a solid contributing piece for the Canes going forward. I’d chalk that up as a win any day of the week.