I’ve caught enough Saginaw games over the past year with Dima Zhilkin playing alongside 2026 draft pick Nikita Klepov that I went into this two-game sample size very excited to watch Zhilkin. Ultimately, I was disappointed because my peripheral viewings this year showed a player with more skill than what showed up in these viewings. Neither game showcased the ceiling I think Zhilkin has.

The first viewing was a game with Team Canada in a win-or-go-home situation in the u18s, and Zhilkin never looked comfortable. His puck receptions were clunky, simple passes gave him trouble, and opponents consistently closed on him before he could create any separation. There were several plays where I credited him with completed passes only because teammates recovered what otherwise would have been errant passes. Along the boards he struggled to stay on his feet through contact, and very little of the offensive creativity I’d seen during the season ever surfaced.

The second viewing told a similar story.

Playing against Kitchener in the playoffs, the eventual OHL champions, Zhilkin spent much of the night dumping pucks in, chipping pucks out, and playing a much safer game than I expected. He wasn’t creating much through transition, his passing lacked the deception I’d hoped to see, and he never consistently separated from defenders with either his hands or his feet. The offensive skill simply didn’t drive the game.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t positives.

Zhilkin plays with a motor that immediately stands out. He’s an active, competitive winger who isn’t afraid to get involved physically despite giving up size. Rather than being a player who looks to get their offense by creating space for himself, he looks comfortable getting into the dirty areas, battling for loose pucks and cleaning up broken plays around the offensive zone. Defensively, he was consistently engaged, especially tracking back through transition and pinching aggressively up the wall to disrupt plays before they developed.

Away from the puck offensively, I thought he was better than he was with it.

He consistently found soft areas in coverage and gave skilled teammates opportunities to find him in dangerous areas. He averaged 4.5 shots per game during my tracking, and much of that came from arriving in the right spots without the puck rather than creating those chances himself.

The tracking data largely reflected what I saw on film. Zhilkin was involved in just under 39% of his team’s offensive transition plays while completing 66% of those opportunities. His overall passing percentage finished at 55.3%, and only 5.3% of his completed passes reached dangerous areas. Those aren’t the numbers you’d expect from a player driving offense through skill and puck distribution. Defensively, however, he was active and efficient throughout both games, matching the competitiveness that stood out every time he was away from the puck.

I’ve seen flashes throughout the OHL season where Zhilkin looked much more dynamic playing alongside players like Barabanov and Klepov, and those moments make it difficult to dismiss the offensive upside entirely. At the same time, these two games didn’t give me enough evidence to project him as a player I want carrying the puck through transition or driving offense on his own.

Right now, I see a competitive winger with good defensive habits, a willingness to play in difficult areas, and enough glimpses of offensive skill to keep me interested. The next step is seeing those flashes become a more consistent part of his game, because if the skill doesn’t begin driving play more often, it’s difficult to see him becoming one of the top forwards in the 2027 draft class.