Ilia Morozov is an optimist at heart.
Chalk it up to a sense of self-belief, one that brought the Russian forward to North America to pursue his lifelong dream, a journey that saw Morozov stand tall as the youngest skater in NCAA Division I hockey to start the 2025-26 campaign.
The Miami centreman shot out of the gate with four goals in his first six collegiate games, finishing the year 20 points for the RedHawks and helping the team record its first winning season in over a decade.
And regardless of where his NHL rights land on Draft weekend, the 6-foot-3, 205-lb. forward is confident that if he puts in the work, everything will work out.
“I believe that life is fair,” Morozov opined last week at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo. “If you put (in) honest work, if you do 100% every time … you'll get the result.
“That's (been) my experience. If I wasn't doing something right, it was going the wrong way. If I'm doing right, it's going the right way. So that's, personally, just my experience. And I believe I did lots of work to be here.”
Part of that work included leaving home. Morozov joined the Windy City Storm AAA squad in 2023 (a team that included fellow Combine invitee and Spokane Chiefs forward Tyus Sparks). A year later, he scored 11 goals for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm and last fall, he began his collegiate career - while continuing his education - at Flames forward Blake Coleman’s alma mater of Miami.
“I do Finance as my major,” Morozov said of his studies. “But my favourite class was, English 107. That's the class for international students, and I think that was pretty fun and chill.”
On the ice, Morozov grades his skill package as that of a two-way centreman that focuses on details in his game.
But Morozov is also proving fans and scouts alike that he’s always up for a challenge. Consider the fact the Moscow native turns 18 in August, and already has a full NCAA season under his belt.
“I think that was an amazing opportunity, because I believe that if you play with somebody who's better than you, it will make you better,” he said of his freshman campaign. “So I was really looking to do that, to play against the bigger and stronger guys, who play better hockey, who (are) faster, and I believe that my game grew with that.”
Morozov was one of two Russians on the Miami roster a season ago - Panthers 2021 fourth-rounder Vladislav Lukashevich the other - but this fall, at least one more countryman will be joining the RedHawks fold.
Goaltender Yegor Yegorov, selected by Calgary in the sixth round of the 2023 Draft, will be joining Morozov in Ohio come autumn after posting a .918 save percentage across 38 MHL (Russian junior) games last season.
Morozov, three years Yegorov’s junior, might well become the elder statesman on campus, showing the Flames draftee the ins and outs of NCAA life.
One thing’s for certain, though. Whatever tasks his hockey career throws his way, Morozov is willing to put in the effort to succeed.
“I take all the challenges with the discipline of hard work,” he said of his approach over the past year. “I was doing lots of stuff.
“Inside the rink, outside the rink, I tried to make every part of my game better.”
