No. 20: Tyurin is Red Wings’ New Man of Mystery

Editor’s Note: This is the 20th installment of a Detroit Hockey Now series assessing the Detroit Red Wings’ prospects’ path to the NHL. The emphasis will be on what their chances are of playing regularly in the NHL and when we can expect to see them wearing the Winged Wheel.

NHL Draft status: 140th, 2025

Detroit Hockey Now Ranking: No. 20 Red Wings prospect

Hgt./Wgt: 6-0, 179 pounds

Age/Experience: 19, playing his first season with Khimik of Russia’s VHL

The summer of 2026 was big for both Nikita Tyurin and the Detroit Red Wings. For the first time since the Wings selected him in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, the Detroit brass got to see the Russian defenseman in person.

He attended the club’s summer development camp.

“We’ve done video and spoken to him, but certainly never got to see him over here,” Red Wings development director Dan Cleary said.

With the political situation in Russia and the ongoing war with Ukraine, going there to watch prospects is out of the question. It tends to turn Russian draft picks into international men of mystery.

Some of the mystery surrounding Tyurin is gone now that the curtain’s been pulled back and they’ve been given the chance to assess his game up close and personal.

“It was finally good to see him,” Cleary said. “It’s always nice to meet your prospects for the first time.”

Tyurin spent the majority of last season in the MHL, the Russian junior league, with the Moscow Spartak juniors. Accounting for 4-26-30 totals in 52 games, he finished 13th among defensemen in scoring.

Tyurin’s 26 assists tied him for sixth among rearguards in that department.

In the MHL playoffs, Tyurin led all blueliners with nine assists as Spartak reached the Kharlamov Cup final.

He also got called up to play seven KHL games with Moscow Spartak. Tyurin was held pointless in those seven games and was minus-one.

He’s an outstanding puck mover. NHL teams are seeking mobile defenders, and Tyurin certainly fits that bill.

His first pass is extremely accurate. That’s another asset for a defenseman, perhaps the least talked-about in terms of importance.

Tyurin’s hockey sense is off the charts. He reads the game well, and reacts quickly to close gaps.

Any player taken as late in the draft as Tyurin was is a roll of the dice. It’s an even more complicated scenario since he’s in Russia.

Gauging when he might get to North America is challenging enough. Assessing how long until he’s playing for the Red Wings, if he ever does, is truly a crapshoot.