The hype surrounding Yakupov prompted the tagline "Fail for Nail" amongst fans of teams hoping to draft the future star winger. In an interview from almost two years ago, Yakupov opened up on former NHLer John Scott's podcast, Droppin the Gloves. This artificially forced Yakupov to play a lesser role, typically with less skilled players and in many cases, inconsistent lines. When stacked against his age group of under 23 year olds, out of 58 forwards, Yakupov is 46th. We will never know but one thing is for certain, he was not a bad hockey player and not nearly as bad as you may remember.