7-foot tall 16 year old player comes to North America to join NCAA

According to reports this morning, 16 year old Russian forward Alexander Carmanov will be committing to Penn State.

Carmanov stands 7 feet tall and 250 pounds already, and he's not even fully grown. Usually players of this size come in the form of bruised defenceman, but Carmanov can actually move well, and could be an obvious weapon on the forecheck.

His physical gifts alone with this height and skating ability will practically guarantee that he's drafted in the next two years, likely in the first two rounds. Over his last 18 games, he's recorded a decent 9 points.

It's yet to be seen if his abilities will really translate over to the quality hockey played in the NCAA, but Carmanov's already got the package to have success. He likely won't ever be a generational scorer like Bedard, but a forward that's two inches taller than Zdeno Chara in the later half of the first round could be very interesting. He won't be draft eligible until 2026, but he's already caught the attention of the hockey world.

Source: PuckPreps on X