Top-ranked Russian Valeri Nichushkin will lead his country into battle at the World Under-18 Championship on home ice from April 18-28 in Sochi.

But the 18-year-old may not be there in time for the tournament opener.

Nichushkin is still skating with Traktor Chelyabinsk, who is in the KHL’s Gagarin Cup Final. Dynamo leads Traktor 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Game 7, if necessary, is scheduled for April 19th, one day after the start of the U18’s.

Nichushkin, eighth in Future Considerations’ March ranking for the 2013 NHL Draft, is expected to join the club after the series concludes, according to Roman Solovyov.

GOALTENDERS: Ivan Bocharov, Nikita Serebryakov, Igor Shesterkin

DEFENSEMEN: Nikolai Demidov, Vladislav Gavrikov, Nicholas Glukhov, Vladislav Lysenko, Rushan Rafikov, Dmitry Sergeyev, Sergey Stetsenko, Artem Zub, Dmitry Yudin

FORWARDS: Andrey Alekseev, Ivan Barbashev, Paul Buchnevich, Ruzal Galeev, Nicholas Goldobin, Ilya Ivanov, Vyacheslav Leshchenko, Valeri Nichushkin, Nikita Setdikov, Nikita Shatsky, Eugene Svechnikov, Vladimir Tkachev, Sergei Tolchinski