I’m pretty sure that he’s going to come and make it straight to the NHL next season – after this year three years in Russian elite league should be plenty. He might try to get assurances in this regard from Rangers coaching staff and he should be able to get it too (though there might be some complications here).
His expectation in the NHL will be depending on how this year goes for him – he might have a break out year and then expectations will be through the roof. And if not – then there might be less pressure on him to produce in NHL right away. Catch 22.

Jess, your view may be unpopular, but you’re certainly not the only who holds it. In fact, there seems to be a large contingent who believe he’ll never come. I’m actually far more optimistic now than I was even a few months ago. And I think whether or not he comes next season has a lot less to do with money than it does with how he plays this season. He set a goal of making the senior national team before leaving for the NHL, and if he does that and has the kind of season he expected of himself last year, I think he’ll have the confidence to come over and take a shot at the NHL. I think it all comes down to whether he thinks he can stick in the NHL. The Russian press (and his own organization, I’m sure) does a good job of trying to make the AHL sound like hell on earth, and I think that, as much as the money, is influencing his decision.

And I’m not particularly worried about the pressure he’ll be under once he gets here — you don’t break a record by Pavel Bure or outscore Ovechkin and Malkin in your first pro season and not bring a whole lot of scrutiny upon yourself. That pressure is exactly what you’re sensing when you say you get the feeling that interviewers are trying to cut the kid down. One thing the Rangers have done pretty well lately is shield their prospects from undue pressure (except among the most diehard of fans, which are a small number in the grand scheme of things). I think they’ll do a lot to temper expectations once the decision is made for him to come over.

As for Cherepanov interviews we have to remember that they are translations and what we really need to have happen is to get a firsthand account to get a feel as to what Cherepanov is saying.

I get the sense when we see these Russian interviews that they try to portray Cherepanov in a negative light. If you look at those questions they are designed to cut the kid down at the knees and make us think he is a selfish self-centered young man.

My own sources say the kid is not like that and in most of the things he was supposed to have said or done that he had no idea (IE coming over to the Rangers camp this fall) that his own GM had made that statement