Last year wasn’t an ideal season for Fedor Svechkov.

The 2021 first-round pick continued to bounce around the KHL, the VHL, and the MHL but didn’t make a major impression that he was pro-ready. In 27 KHL games, Svechkov struggled to drive offense consistently, win battles through the neutral zone, and put pucks on-net from high-danger areas.

The VHL playoffs showed promise as Svechkov potted five goals in nine games en route to a championship; an offseason later, the young center is building on that momentum.

The Milwaukee Admirals are fostering a handful of new prospects, including Svechkov, who’s mostly been playing middle-six minutes for the 5-5-0 squad. In those ten games, Svechkov has notched three goals and six points while taking just a single minor penalty. Four of his points have been primary ones scored at even strength, and he’s been an important offensive driver with a 26.43% relative goals-for rate at five-on-five.

Svechkov’s improvements go beyond his stat line too.

This year, Svechkov is jumping quicker onto loose pucks. He’s always had good instincts and read plays off-the-puck well; now he’s complementing that with his feet. Still, he’s purposeful with his puck carrying, delaying in the neutral zone when needed to stall defenders and buy time for his linemates as shown above.

Along with an added jump through the neutral zone, Svechkov is showing the ability to execute his puck skills against AHL defenders. His dynamic stickhandling has benefitted his linemates this season—like the cross-ice tape-to-tape saucer pass shown above—boosting Milwaukee’s leading scorer Denis Gurianov.

In three games I’ve tracked, Svechkov’s neutral-zone data has matched his game tape: 100% zone-exit success rate, 83.3% zone-entry success rate, and he’s skating pucks into the offensive zone far more than he’s dumping them in.

Svechkov has always been heralded for his defensive prowess, and that remains unchanged. Turning those successful backchecks into rushes up the ice, complete with his creative passing, will be the key to continued development this season.

At the other end of the ice, the Russian forward has taken his forecheck game up a notch. He’s never going to win a ton of battles with his footspeed, but with good angles and tenacious stickwork, Svechkov can help set up a lot of goals off of turnovers like the one above.

Thanks to his play-driving, Svechkov has more offensive chances to capitalize on. In three games, he recorded 14.99 primary shot assists per 60 minutes of even-strength ice time and 10.49 shot attempts, including 6.00 from high-danger areas; production at that rate will lead to plenty of points this season.

Milwaukee nor Nashville should expect Fedor Svechkov to be the fastest guy on his line or an elite sniper. But early this season, he’s showing how he can build on his set-up abilities, his defensive discipline, and his off-the-puck smarts like pulling back in the clip above to buy space for a pass or rebound. Taking advantage of those opportunities this year will reignite Svechkov’s development and keep him on track to a productive NHL career.

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