Prospect Update: Artyom Galimov

By Thomas Harrington

A fifth round pick from 2020, Artyom Galimov completed his second full season in the KHL, playing for Ak Bars Kazan. He is the first Russian player Anaheim has selected in the draft since Igor Bobkov in 2009, and the first Russian forward since Anaheim selected Stanislav Chistov in 2001.

Before he was drafted, Galimov won the KHL rookie of the year award in the 2019-2020 season, scoring 13 goals and 23 points in 55 games. This past season, his numbers took a bit of a dip, as he scored six goals and 16 points in 41 games. He missed most of November with injury, which partially explains his dip in production. The good news is that even though he played in fewer games, he was able to match his assist total from the previous season. Despite his goal total dropping, he did score a couple of highlight reel goals this past season.

In the playoffs, he played in 15 games for Ak Bars Kazan and scored two goals and seven points, a nice bump in production from his regular season numbers. Ak Bars Kazan made it to the conference finals before losing to Avangard Omsk in seven games.

Galimov will be back in the KHL this coming season, and my expectations for him are to put up better numbers than he did this past season and to be a more consistent offensive threat. Galimov has a ton of skill, but hasn’t been utilizing it on a nightly basis in the KHL. He had a six-game pointless streak in the middle of the season and two other four-game pointless streaks while his longest point streak was three games and he had a multi-point game just once. It would be great if Galimov became a threat to score on every shift, but I’ll be happy for him to have fewer pointless streaks and longer scoring streaks.

Galimov is probably two or three years away from the NHL. This coming season could be his final year of hockey in Russia before coming to North America. Galimov is already 21 and will be 22 in September, so as long as he has a strong season in the KHL, the Ducks will likely want him to come stateside sooner rather than later. If he can light it up in the KHL the way Kirill Kaprizov did over his final years in the KHL, he could come straight to the NHL. However, I think it much more likely he gets time in San Diego before he gets a chance in Anaheim.

Galimov is currently unsigned by the Ducks. If Anaheim is happy with his development, and he decides to come to North America, expect him to sign a standard entry-level contract, possibly as soon as next summer. However, if he doesn’t develop as expected, or prefers to just stay in Russia and play in the KHL, the Ducks could decide not to sign him. Per capfriendly.com, Anaheim owns his rights indefinitely. While his rights will eventually expire, the Ducks do have control of Galimov’s NHL future for the foreseeable future, so they can afford to be patient. If Galimov chooses to spend two or three more years in the KHL and then decides to come to North America, he could likely do that, as long as Anaheim is happy with where his overall play is.

The next prospect update will be on Jackson LaCombe.

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September 22nd, 2021