The most newsworthy moment of the Development Camp scrimmage was perhaps who was in the stands watching it.

Evgeny Kuznetsov attended the game. The Capitals’ first-line center, rocking a Bart Simpson hat backward (like this), sat inconspicuously in the third row of a mostly empty section 117 with Capitals’ 2022 first-round pick Ivan Miroshnichenko, who was unable to play due to a recovery from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and the team’s top defense prospect, Alex Alexeyev.

Kuzy’s daughter Ecenia also joined him at the game.

Look who decided to stop by!#CapsDevCamp | @ThinkRed pic.twitter.com/Y3eyweTasD

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) July 16, 2022

Kuzy could be seen offering observations to the two prospects as the scrimmage wore on.

Kuzy, Alexeyev and first rounder Miroshnichenko made an appearance at tonight's development camp scrimmage 👀 pic.twitter.com/BtC9U8XDPU

— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) July 16, 2022

After the Capitals posted a photo of him at the game, a dozen or so fans located Kuzy in the crowd and came over to ask for autographs and photos. All three players kindly obliged as play went on.

“It was awesome meeting Kuzy!” Luke C. said. “He’s such a nice down to earth person.”

“They were focused on the game and spending time with each other but still made time to greet fans which I greatly appreciated,” Alexander G. said.

Two readers at the scrimmage, Aidan F. and Luke C., wore RMNB jerseys to the event and approached the players to have it signed.

“Kuzy smiled at the jersey and chuckled,” Aidan F. said to me afterward. “I just asked him how his offseason was and he said it was going pretty well. I asked Alexeyev about his rehab and he said with a big smile that it was going very well. I also asked Miroshnickenko about his recovery, but his English wasn’t great. The response after trying a few times was ‘Da.’ He had a huge smile the whole time and seemed in good spirits. But Kuzy definitely laughed at the jersey.”

They also took a photo with him – though Alexeyev got blocked by Aidan’s face. Alexeyev could be seen trying to peek his head above.

Kuzy’s reaction to the jersey may be because as a younger player he followed RMNB on social media and once asked for one of the blog’s phone cases in the locker room, which we absolutely delivered on.

Kuznetsov being at the scrimmage was significant because prior to Friday, it was unclear if he was in the DC area or back home in Russia. Typically, Kuzy spends at least part of his summers in his hometown of Chelyabinsk. But in recent years, he has either stayed stateside or returned earlier in August to begin training at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.

“I have no idea (where I’ll be),” Kuznetsov said during Breakdown Day in May. “Some people do have plans. My plans was to go play Game Seven and go from there. My daughter have to finish the school on June 10 and then we’ll see.”

With so much uncertainty about how easy or difficult it will be for Russian NHL players to return to the United States for the 2022-23 season — Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov was denied entry into the United States twice and is wanted for allegedly buying a military ID card in 2017 while Flyers prospect Ivan Fedotov was possibly poisoned and taken to a military camp for evading service — any Russian Caps out of the country is a concern.

At this point, it appears the only Caps’ Russians out of the country are Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov.

Headline photo: @Cynthia_Adler/Twitter

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