Alexander Zharovsky’s season could come to an end on Tuesday

Jonathan Di Gregorio
Alexander Zharovsky’s season could come to an end on Tuesday
Credit: Capture d'écran / X

Although the spotlight has been on Michael Hage for the past few days, another Habs prospect was one to watch as Alexander Zharovsky continued his run in the KHL playoffs.

The CH prospect's season could very well come to an end on Tuesday after Salavat Yulaev Ufa lost 3-2 to Bob Hartley's team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Former Habs player Alexander Radulov also plays for Lokomotiv.

With this loss, Salavat trails 3-0 in the second-round series and has no room for error. Zharovsky's season could therefore come to an end as early as Tuesday.

The young forward has been held scoreless in the last four playoff games and has just two assists in nine games since the start of the playoffs.

At least his ice time increased to 15:01 minutes in the last game, after he had played just 2:51 minutes in Friday's game.

In fact, the offensive slump doesn't seem to be affecting just Zharovsky, as his team was shut out in the first two games of the series against Lokomotiv and has scored only two goals in three games so far in this series.

Furthermore, Salavat may well be without Evgeny Kuznetsov for Game 4, as he had to leave this morning's game on a stretcher after being checked into the boards by Alexander Polunin.

Zharovsky has just completed a surprising first season in the KHL with 42 points, including 16 goals, in 59 games.

However, after an excellent start to the season, the Russian forward's production dropped off in the second half of the schedule, with seven points (three goals and four assists) in 19 games to finish the campaign.

So don't expect Zharovsky, who still has one season left on his contract, to make the jump to North America anytime soon, as we saw with Ivan Demidov last year.

It's clear that Zharovsky isn't ready to come help the Habs, and even though he could be an interesting addition for the Laval Rocket in the AHL playoffs, I don't think the Canadiens will want to burn a year off his contract this season.

I believe the most likely scenario is that the Canadiens will wait until the start of next season before making a decision regarding him.


In brief

– A first for Kale McCallum.

– A 100th matchup.

– Preparing for life after Ovy?

– A 500th hit.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!