BUFFALO — After making a trade and selecting German Rubtsov with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall met with the Philadelphia media to discuss his night.
Some notes:
- German Rubtsov was part of the Russian under-18 team that was suspended from the World Championships earlier this year due to a melondium scandal. The team was forced to take the drug, but Hextall doesn’t seem concerned about it. “We dug deep here in terms of the character. We did more research on this kid than I’ve ever done.”
- “We did our research on this kid, trust me. Up, down and all around. … We’ve very comfortable.”
- When pressed on the issue, Hextall said that the scandal shouldn’t be a knock on Rubtsov. He says that the entire hockey world believes that this issue was the fault of the higher ups in Russian hockey and shouldn’t be held against the players.
- Rubtsov has a two-year contract with a team in the KHL — Chekhov Vityaz — so he might not be able to come to North America right away. Rubtsov said that he and his agent are trying to get him out of that deal, but should that not happen, Hextall said the Flyers are prepared to wait. Rubtsov turns 18 next week, so time is on the Flyers side here.
- Should Rubtsov come to North America earlier than that, Hextall says he doesn’t think it’d be a jump to the AHL right away but that he isn’t sure exactly how a move to the Canadian Hockey League would work. No CHL team holds Rubtsov’s rights in that league. /
Full video of Hextall’s chat here:
