Maxim Beryozkin’s questionable projection as an Edmonton Oilers prospect

Maxim Beryozkin is the name that most Edmonton Oilers fans have never heard of until now. Beryozkin is a Russian winger selected over four seasons ago, in 2020, by the copper and blue. Here is everything you need to know about the fifth round Russian selection and his possible journey to the NHL

Who is Maxim Beryozkin?

Position	Handedness	Height	Weight	TOI
RW	Right	6’4”	212 lbs	15:17

The 2002 born Beryozkin hails from Chita, Russia and grew up in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL centred developmental system, playing with affiliated teams since the 2016–17 season. Hockey also runs in the family as his younger brother, Ilya Beryozkin (07) is expected to make his MHL debut next season within the Yaroslavl system too.

Beryozkin’s on-ice production

Beryozkin has a record of success, being named one of the players of the month during the 2018–19 season, eventually culminating in an MHL championship.

Playing in the MHL (Russian junior league), the 6’4” winger was a prime player for Loko Yaroslavl during the wingers draft year finishing second on the team in points. This generated some NHL interest. This interest came at the 2020 NHL draft when the Oilers selected him in the fifth round, 138th overall.

First earning a semi-regular KHL roster spot in the 2020–21 season he appeared in 31 games, and a following 30 games that next season. Beryozkin then had a breakout season in 2022–23 where he notched 26 points and a further five in the playoffs.

The Russian winger then took a further step forward this past season further fleshing out his skill set as a power forward getting quality minutes on a contending Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team.

Year	League	Team	GP	G	A	P	Playoff GP	Playoff G	Playoff A	Playoff P
2021–22	KHL	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	30	1	1	2	1	0	0	0
2021-22	MHL	Loko Yaroslavl	22	13	22	35	7	0	1	1
2022–23	KHL	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	52	7	19	26	12	3	2	5
2022-23	VHL	Molot Perm	9	3	3	6
2023–24	KHL	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	62	8	22	30	20	5	11	16

Expect Beryozkin to continue this development in the KHL for the upcoming 2024–25 season. Keep an eye on the young Russian as this is also a make or break season for his NHL hopes. Beryozkin’s KHL deal expires in April of 2025, allowing the Oilers to sign him if they are impressed enough by his play.

Beryozkin’s player profile

Beryozkin plays a power forwards game that contains some physicality, and puck skills, with minor notables being shooting and compete level.

Strengths

Puck skills

There is a lot to like about Beryozkin’s puck skills especially his puck protection mechanics, dekes, and quality passing.

The puck protection mechanics are NHL ready, through his frame and extended reach he is able to establish favourable body positioning. Through this leverage Beryozkin is able to lean back into defenders making it harder on them to take the puck, which extending his stick reach putting the puck at favourable protection angles, all the while using the boards against his opponents.

Puck possession is greatly aided by Beryozkin’s puck protection battles which benefits the entire team.

Beryozkin shows some quality puck handling be it in transition and zone play. On the breakout he proves to be a capable puck handler up until the central ice area, but does show some decent control. In zone entries when attacking from the outside the forward will display some deke aptitude.

This is further reinforced by his 67% deke success rate, which does also show significant room for improvement.

The Oilers draftee also shows some simple playmaking ability with good short passing and the ability to see through some layers when passing/shooting. These quality passing plays have an 86% success rate and is largely how the Russian winger generates his 1.58 scoring chances per game.

Physicality

A large frame, quality body positioning, and grit are keys to his physical game.

With a 6’4” frame the 22-year-old forward has shown some siginificant physical development and muscle mass building leading to him rarely being overpowered in board battles, or the slot. Beryozkin shows good fights for body positioning and leverage, which highlights his physical power on the ice.

This physical power results in him being an ideal candidate for net-front/bumper which is where 2:28 of his ice time comes from as a powerplay asset for Yarolslavl based team.

His eagerness to engage in board battles also shows his physical aptitude. With 14 puck battles per game and 0.44 shot blocks, the Yaroslavl winger shows good endurance, and notable grit in comparison to players his age. With more experience expect his 47% puck battle winning percentage to increase.

His physicality is also complimented by flashes of hustle particularly in defensive transition where he shows good commitment to positional responsibility through the use of a fairly active stick, quality poke checks, and some awareness of opponent passing lanes.

Shooting

Beryozkin’s shot is an asset to his game and makes him somewhat of an offensive threat for opposing teams due to its notable weight transfer, slight deception and good puck placement.

Particularly with his shot placement it makes sense how Beryozkin was able to generate his high scoring at the MHL and VHL levels, as he picks corners and attempts to decieve goaltenders from some odd angles. This is articulated by his modest 0.25 expected goals for.

This can also be a downside of his shot, as his accuracy only sits at 56%. Despite Beryozkin’s low accuracy, the winger displays quality shot selection and rarely excessively shoots displayed by his average of three shots per game.

Especially because Beryozkin starts so many of his shifts in the O-zone his quality shot is a notable tool in his expansive toolkit.

Areas of improvement

Overall the Russian right winger faces two significant barriers in his play largely revolving around his senses, and skating.

Skating

The Chita product faces a large hurdle with his skating as his posture, acceleration, and stride are problematic.

His posture lacks ankle flection, and displays some issues with balance, as he appears to be rocking back and fourth a bit in his skates in a constant fight for stability. This posture problem generates issues around power, acceleration, and pace in Beryozkin’s game.

Furthermore these posture issues are further compounded by a mechanically short stride (which has been an issue since his draft year), and produces some busy feet that are not helped by limited lower body flection and a skating narrow base.

In short, Beryozkin does not have much seperation speed, or any dynamic qualities in his skating.

These problems articulate themselves clearly in transitional play as he lacks significant speed, crossover ability, and acceleration. In order to keep up the winger has very lateral attack route that make his transition game slightly more predictable in terms of defensive pressure exertion.

The extended reach of the 6’ player, and ok motor slight compensate for these skating shortcomings, and there has been improvements since the 2020 draft year in his edgework and some greater agility.

A possible fix would be to work with a power skating coach and employ better skating techniques, but at this age it remains questionable how much his skating form can really improve.

Senses

These issues around senses are highlighted by poor play reading, decision making, and offensive awareness.

In order for Beryozkin to successfully transition to the NHL level he needs to read plays better, and display more deception and or creativity.

Too often does Beryozkin simply skate/pass right into high pressure zones, or dangle through defenders. He has noticable puck fumbles around o-zone entry due to poor play reading and decision making.

This decision making hints at poor play option identification, risk assessment, and vision. There are also times where the right winger appears to force plays throwing the forwards hockey IQ into doubt.

If Beryozkin misses a pass it’s certainly not because of poor puck skills, but because of a lack of spacial awareness and play anticipation. The KHL product does not particularly thrive in reactionary hockey, and this leads to him struggling to keep pace in offensive transition and breakout plays.

In both O-zone, and D-zone these struggles are better hidden, which explains why he serves as such a capable net front presence, particularly on the power play.

These issues around skating and senses also explain why he starts 57% of his shifts in the O-zone, as that better hides some of his weaknesses and makes him a much more effective and efficient teammate.

Beryozkin’s next steps

Expect the 6’4” winger to return to the KHL next season with Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl does have the eighth oldest team in the KHL, so wrestling minutes away from vets might be a bit difficult on a contending team. Whether or not he moves anymore up the depth chart remains to be seen.

Projection with the Oilers

It remains quite uncertain with Beryozkin as he very well could be a KHL for life type of player. In addition, it has been four years since the 2020 draft and the Yaroslavl forward remains one of two (the other being seventh rounder, Swede Jeremias Lindewall) to not play any North American hockey.

Beryozkin faces significant barriers of entry to North American pro hockey with his short comings in two vital areas of senses and skating, but realistically could add some size, physicality, and a touch of soft skill to the Oilers bottom six. It is possible that forward decides himself to stay in the KHL.

NHL ETA: one to two years

Role: bottom-six forward at the NHL level

How do you feel about Beryozkin? Any other prospects you’d like to see us cover? Let us know in the comments.