What’s the deal with 2025 NHL Draft prospect Ivan Ryabkin’s fall?

Yesterday, the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Muskegon Lumberjacks announced that projected 2025 first-round pick Ivan Ryabkin is set to join the team in the coming weeks.

The 17-year-old appeared in two games at the KHL level this season with Dynamo Moscow. He tallied eight assists in nine MHL games. Ryabkin struggled and was even a healthy scratch at the MHL level, which was a shock for a prospect of his calibre.

Today on Daily Faceoff LIVE, prospect analyst Steven Ellis chatted about why Ryabkin’s draft stock has taken a plunge.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The last one I got for you is Ivan Ryabkin. At one point, in terms of the group of Russian prospects, he was talked about in the same breath as Michkov and Demidov and guys like that. Then he just fell off the face of the earth. What happened? 

Steven Ellis: Yeah, so this is a guy that was getting some rave reviews last year at 58 points in 44 games in the MHL, like numbers that were comparable to Michkov and Demidov the last couple of years. And for a guy that knows how to score goals, him not scoring goals this year has been kind of a surprise. He got to the point where he was actually a healthy scratch in the Russian Junior League, which is very, very rare for a player of his calibre. And now the Muskegon Lumberjacks, the USHL, went out and said that he’s going to be joining the team.

Steven Ellis: They did admit there’s going to be some hurdles. It could be a few weeks before he gets over there. He does have some commitments. It sounds like Dynamo Moscow wants him to play in the Russian VHL, which is kind of like the AHL there, see what he could do there. and maybe he’s able to stick in Russia and they say, “You know what? Yep, we’re going to keep him here because he is under contract until 2027.” So it is going to be a bit, you know, there’s that little hurdle to get over. But I think a lot of talent, it’s just putting it together every night seems to be an issue where he can be described as being way too lazy, not putting that 200-foot effort in there. And he’s got no goals to show for. So, there are definitely some struggles. He has fallen on most people’s draft boards. but I think he’s got the talent to make it work if he puts in that effort. Maybe that happens in the USHL. We’ll see.