Player Overview
- D.O.B – October 22, 2002
- Position – Defenseman
- Nationality – Russian
- Height – 6’3 / 190 cm
- Weight – 185 lbs / 84 kg
- Handedness – Left
Introduction
Chayka is Russian defender and one of the older prospects eligible for 2021 NHL Draft. He was drafted #7 overall by the Guelph Storm (OHL) in 2018 where he has played two seasons already, but because the OHL is yet to start due to pandemic, he was loaned to CSKA Moscow (KHL). Since coming back to Russia, he has played 11 games for CSKA Moscow, 10 games for Zvezda Moscow (VHL) and 5 games for Krasnaya Armiya Moscow (MHL). So far he has recorded 2 points in the KHL (1+1), 1 point in VHL (0+1) and 4 points in MHL (1+3). He contributed to the Russian National team by scoring 1 goal and 2 assists at Karjala Cup. He was also a part of Russia’s U20 team at the World Junior Championships 2020 where he played 6 games but didn’t manage to score or assist.
Skating
Despite being 6’3 tall, his skating is on a very good level. Chayka surprised me by this aspect. He uses skating to his advantage in areas all around the ice. Being able to reach top speed in short amount of time along with a decent reach makes him really hard to get beaten by opponents in 1 on 1 situations. Reacts very well to opponents changing their directions.
Shooting
He’s showed that he posseses great shot, especially in OHL. What I noticed was that he really loves to shoot for deflections of his teammates rather than straight on the goaltender. It seems like narrow rink suited him better in Canada, he was getting more opportunities to show his shooting skills and to score more goals. I’ve seen him rip some great one-timers in the OHL too, so he is definitely capable of that, he just needs to adjust his game and positioning which will lead to scoring chances.
Overall, this game against Finland was underwhelming from him, especially defensively, on the other hand, he looked really good on powerplay.
Defensive Play
Daniil is superb at killing transitions and plays very responsibly as a blue-line defender. He is using his long stick for taking the pucks from the attackers and he is very good at it. Although, he needs to work on physical play because his body is built for it and I’m sure he is aware of that so it’s just matter of time. If Chayka learns to combine physical play with poke checking, he will be hard to beat for many players. Most of the time, he is in the right place at the right time and is very reliable when it comes to defending.
Offensive play
Like mentioned before, he seems to struggle in Russia when it comes to offensive play. He was more confident in OHL which led to 11 goals in 19/20 season. He definitely prefers the narrow rink. Chayka isn’t the best player when it comes to transition. He prefers to create attacking opportunities from defensive zone by passing to one of his teammates and he has been doing that really well but there is definitely room for improvement. High risk, high reward, his passes sometimes lead to an icing rather than to promising situation. Fingers crossed that he will improve his game in the offensive zone.
Data – WJC 2021
Let’s dig into some interesting data and stats from WJC.
If we talk about offense, this wasn’t the best tournament for Chayka. However, defensively he was very solid.
And last piece I want to share with you guys is this spider which inludes all the stats from the tournament.
Data and screenshots from malinasportdata.com or @xpmalina on Twitter.
Bonus
When Chayka played his first year in Toronto, he was living with Italian family who had golden horseshoe in their garage. Chayka touched it when he was grabbing his equipment and later on scored a goal. Chayka then touched it every matchday and his luck continued. After he shared the superstition with the family, his host father gave him the horseshoe. From that day, he is always carrying it with himself wherever he goes.
Draft Rankings
#32 – Recruit Scouting (February)
#18 – Personal rankings (February)
Statistics
Daniil Chayka has huge potential to become top two-way defenseman. He is great transition killer and if he starts to use his body more and combines it with his great poke checking he will become even better.
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