NHL Draft profiles: Gridin could be top-six scoring winger

This is the second story in a series of player profiles from the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y., focusing on potential second-round picks for the Penguins at 44th and 46th overall.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Matvei Gridin has the makings of a future top-six scoring winger in the NHL.

Gridin, a native of Kurgan, Russia, made the jump to North America two years ago, joining the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks. After a modest 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 40 games in his rookie 2022-23 season, he exploded offensively for 83 points (38 goals, 45 assists) in 60 games last season to lead the entire USHL in scoring.

"This year, I got experience in this league," Gridin explained of that surge at the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y. last week. "From the first game, I started to believe in myself and build confidence."

Gridin, 18, has good size already for a prospect his age at 6 foot 2 and 189 pounds. He's a left-handed shot who can play both wings, but primarily plays on his right side. That right circle is where he's often parked on Muskegon's power play, where he often uses his dangerous one-timer:

Griden described himself to me as a "high-IQ player. Good skating, fast," but added that he "sometimes gets bad body language," with a bit of a sheepish grin.

Bad body language?

"Sometimes I break my stick, slam my stick on the bench," he explained. "But I work on it."

Gridin said that he was upfront about his "bad body language" with teams in his combine interviews, and they were usually already aware -- "They say, 'Yeaaah, we saw that,'" he recalled.

Gridin's not just pumping his own tires with his self assessment of his hockey IQ and skating, though. NHL Central Scouting's David Gregory told NHL.com in April that Gridin "just has real elite hockey sense. His play without the puck is so good that you think he's anticipating, but it's kind of like he's already where he needs to be all the time and then his ability to move it to the open man. He possesses a complete package of hockey skills. I've seen his mobility and pace getting better as the season's gone on."

Other than the whole "body language" thing, Gridin said that he thinks he needs to improve his consistency and his play without the puck, saying that he "not every time commits to play defense."

That weaker two-way game came up in his draft interviews too, including his meeting with the Penguins. The Penguins were one of 25 teams to meet with Gridin at the combine, and something the Penguins did in their meetings with prospects was do some film review with them of their highlights and lowlights. With Gridin, they went over video with him of his less-than-stellar moments defensively.

"It was defense," Gridin said. "They ask me, 'Do you understand that?' and I say, 'Yeah, I shouldn't do that.'

Muskegon coach Parker Burgess told NHL.com in April that Gridin's actually one of their more effective penalty-killers, among other things.

"He can be F-1 on the forecheck, he gets under sticks and creates a lot of turnovers because he has such a good stick," Burgess said. "We've also given him time on the penalty kill and he's been one of our top penalty killers since we've done it because he's got a good reach ... his stick detail is through the roof."

Gridin named Nikita Kucherov and Evgeny Kuznetsov as the players he tries to model his game after the most. He even has a little bit of Kuznetsov in him in his shootouts, opting to skate in very slowly ... though definitely not as quite as slow as Kuznetsov takes them:

"Kuznetsov is my favorite player," Gridin said. "I love him as a player ... Not off the ice stuff that he does recently."

Smart.

Rankings for Gridin are all over the place. NHL Central Scouting, which separates North American players from Europeans, and skaters from goaltenders in its lists, ranks Gridin the 21st best North American skater (rankings are based on where the player was actually playing, not nationality). In overall rankings, he's ranked as high as 29th (Bob McKenzie) to 91st (Elite Prospects). Most rankings have him listed somewhere in the middle of the second round -- right around where the Penguins pick.

As for what's next for Gridin, that's still up in the air. When he first moved to Muskegon, he just wanted to be playing in North America. But the Canadian major junior leagues at the time banned Russian players from the import draft because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So when Muskegon selected Gridin in 2022, he opted to go that route instead, especially after learning of a number of other Russian players to come through Muskegon, including Andrei Svechnikov. Gridin committed to the University of Michigan for the 2024-25 season shortly after.

Starting with this summer's CHL import draft, though, Russian players are once again allowed to be drafted. And Gridin is still weighing whether he'll go to college or go to whichever team drafts him in the CHL import draft, which is set for July 3. The NHL team that drafts him later this month will likely want to have a say in that decision too.

The Penguins did a lot to add to their forward prospect pool over the last month, but it's still relatively weak compared to other teams' forward pools. Using one of their two second-round picks on a forward -- especially a potential top-six talent like Gridin -- might be a good move.