The Russian defenceman uses his length to shut down passing lanes, but probably won’t end up doing it in the NHL.
The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by Mile High Hockey staff members. Six writers have ranked players under the age of 25 in the Colorado Avalanche organization as of September 1, 2025. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked (plus one Honorable Mention).
Drafted 155th in the fifth Round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, Nikita Ishimnikov remains unsigned as a 20 year old by the Colorado Avalanche.
Like many of the players featured in this series, Ishimnikov was a late round flier from Russia with not a whole lot of scouting data publicly available in North America. At the time of his draft, scouting services ranked him all over the board from #43 – #174, a range that made his ceiling seem like a possible fifth round steal even while his floor remained in the basement.
Since then, Ishimnikov has spent most of his time in the MHL and VHL, feeder leagues to Russia’s major league the KHL, and has done enough to warrant brief callups – notably including two KHL playoff games this past postseason. The callups didn’t lead to a ton of ice time, and he was not able to make an impact on the stat sheet.
That said, Ishimnikov’s strengths are primarily in the defensive end where counting stats aren’t easy to come by. When given more minutes in the lower leagues, Ishimnikov played very low-event hockey – neither team scored much with him on the ice – and stayed out of the penalty box. Those stats paint the picture of a positionally sound defenseman using his brains rather than braun to prevent goals, and a limited ability to create breakouts that lead to offense.
Where Can Ishimnikov Improve?
This is not a player who needs to add offense to his game to make it in North America, rather he needs to hone his defensive zone strength and build enough puck skill to feed transitions from defense to offense. His best hope at an NHL career is likely as a smart, steady third pair defender, most of whom are lefties so as a right handed player he does have some appeal there — if he can become the Russian version of a Nick Jensen, that’s a huge win.
Why Did Colorado Draft Him?
He’s got the length and skating ability to grow into a sturdy defender, and the aforementioned right handed shot adds a little extra value if he can put everything else together and crack the lineup.
He did have some heat heading into the draft, leading to some surprising high rankings. Most of that seems to have been because of a strong MHL playoff run in 22-23, when he put up 2G 4A and was a +6 in 7 games skating top pair minutes for Avto Yekaterinburg. The team didn’t win their series, but Ishimnikov was a standout in all three zones.
Unfortunately he has not been able to perform at that high a level since. The simple truth is Ishimnikov’s a longshot, but a longshot with the physical tools to fit into a bottom pair role.
2025 Top 25 Under 25
#25 Louka Cloutier
#24 Ivan Yunin