{"id":396529,"date":"2026-09-11T04:09:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396529\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T04:09:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:09:31","slug":"2026-tampa-bay-lightning-top-20-under-25-10-oleg-kulebiakin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396529\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tampa Bay Lightning Top 20 Under 25: #10 Oleg Kulebiakin"},"content":{"rendered":"

While growing up Oleg Kulebiakin modeled his game after Nikita Kucherov, now the 2026 draft pick has a chance to skate beside him in the pre-season. <\/p>\n

NameOleg KulebiakinPositionWingerAge (as of October 1, 2026)18Height\/Weight5\u201911\u201d, 179 lbs.Expected 2026-27 TeamHalifax MooseheadsDraft \u2013 Year, Round2026, 2nd (52)Previous RankingsNot ApplicableJustinG. Ranking17Final Rank10<\/p>\n

Stats:<\/p>\n

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Our Thoughts:<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Lightning thought enough of Oleg Kulebiakin (most prospect sites have his name spelled as Kulebyakin, but we\u2019ll go with how it\u2019s spelled on the Lightning\u2019s site) to trade up in the second round to draft him this past summer. It might be a few seasons until he puts on the Bolts\u2019 blue and white on a full-time basis, but if and when he does, there is a good chance that his play will remind a lot of fans of the player he idolized growing up \u2013 Nikita Kucherov.<\/p>\n

Look, we know it\u2019s a fool\u2019s game to compare a prospect to one of the greatest players to ever lace up the skates, but there is a lot of similarity in how they process the game. They are both dangerous along the half-wall, constantly skate with their heads up in the offensive zone calculating their options, and are seemingly playing the game one or two steps ahead of their opponents.<\/p>\n

In his first season in the QMJHL, Kulebiakin finished with 73 points (29 goals, 44 assists) which was good for third among 17-year-olds in the league. He led the Halifax Mooseheads in scoring while finishing 17th in league overall in assists. Not too bad of a debut. <\/p>\n

While his numbers on a month-to-month basis were pretty consistent (13 points a month in October, November, January, and February) he could be a bit streaky. December was a rough month for him as he had six points in ten games with a stretch of just one point in seven games, but he made up for lost time when he finished the season with a 12-game point streak in which he put up 6 goals and 16 assists.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old will look to build on those numbers while providing a little more consistency as he returns to Halifax for another season. After that he\u2019s committed to the University of Massachusetts for the 2027-28 season. After that, it could be time for him to join the professional ranks. <\/p>\n

It is interesting to note that Julien BriseBois praised Kulebiakin\u2019s skill level in his post-draft interview<\/a> with the media, but did also make this comment,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I hope that all our players take from Nikita, if anything, is his work ethic and commitment to excellence and being the best player he can be. So, hopefully, over time here Oleg gets exposed to Nikita, and some of that rubs off of him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kulebiakin\u2019s talent got him drafted, but it\u2019s going to take hard work to make it to the NHL. One thing that can be an issue for talented playmakers is that the plays that worked when they were younger don\u2019t work when the talent level they play against rises. In short, he can\u2019t rely on his skill alone. He\u2019s going to have to put the effort in. If he does that, the sky is the limit.<\/p>\n

Some scouts have mentioned that he does play a bit of a perimeter game and doesn\u2019t necessarily go into the dirtier spots on the ice and can be knocked off of the puck at times. Adding strength will be a big asset to him over the next few seasons. His skating is good, but somewhat opportunistic. As in he gets a lot faster when staring at a breakaway as opposed to a backcheck. That\u2019s not unusual among younger players, and he has time to improve that aspect of his game.<\/p>\n

One of the more interesting notes about his development came from Elite Prospects\u2018 Hadi Kalakeche who wrote<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\u201cHis dekes looked more pre-planned and efficient in this game; he was solving problems rather than flashing skill for the sake of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Showing off stick-handling skills just because a player can is great for practice, but isn\u2019t what coaches want in a game. Many a hot shot hockey player is now selling insurance when they couldn\u2019t get past that tipping point. <\/p>\n

Kulebiakin will be a fun prospect to keep an eye on over the next couple of years. His playmaking skills and vision are among the best in the prospect pool already, and if he can improve some other aspects of his game he could find a role in the Lightning\u2019s top six down the road. <\/p>\n

Your Thoughts:<\/p>\n

Kulebiakin is the first prospect to garner a first-place vote. He also had one of the widest spreads of any of the prospects on the list as he picked up at least one vote in just about every spot except for 2 and 4. <\/p>\n

\u201cKulebyakin was a nice pick. Watched him in development camp and his shot is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI ranked Oleg Kulebyakin as my number 1 prospect. I believe he has all the tools to be a star in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKulebyakin is another boom or bust offensive player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKulbyakin is a young prospect with a lot of potential (top 6) in my opinion. I\u2019m curious to see how he develops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKulebyakin, if he can be 70% of the player Kuch is, all the more reason to move Kuch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKulebyakin being mentioned in the same sentence as Kucherov is enough to merit attention to his prospective future, but then you couple that with what he was able to show during the prospect camp. It\u2019s hard not to be a little hyped over his future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlight Videos:<\/p>\n

No sense in showing his highlights one-by-one. This collection shows exactly what he brings to the ice. Excellent vision, good hands, and a sneaky good shot. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While growing up Oleg Kulebiakin modeled his game after Nikita Kucherov, now the 2026 draft pick has a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-396529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}