The 31-year-old had an 83.3 percent success rate in shootouts this past season with the Capitals.

Evgeny Kuznetsov's slow-motion shootout moves have taken the NHL by storm, but among the several fans also sit critics. Kuznetsov is well aware of them.

The 31-year-old shootout antics have made their way onto several highlight reels as he approaches the net slowly and makes about 20 dekes before firing a quick shot past the goaltender. With this move, his shootout percentage skyrocketed to 83.3 percent in 2022-23.

Though it's impressed many, his classic shootout attempt has not been well-received by quite a few players, with Russian netminder Ilya Proskuryakov, who played with Kuznetsov when both were on Traktor in 2011-12, being the latest to speak out against them, joining Wayne Gretzky and more.

"Even then, it was difficult to catch shootouts from him. And now it's almost impossible. Even Gretzky complains that something needs to be done," Proskuryakov told Sport-Express, per a DeepL translation.

Gretzky voiced his thoughts on the moves on TNT during the season, citing his disdain with Kuznetsov's stick twirl before the moves and slow entry. He also insisted that a time limit be imposed with the goaltender having to wait and being mostly unable to stop it as Kuznetsov waits them out.

"I hate it," Gretzky said as TNT played a highlight of Kuznetsov’s most recent slow shootout goal. "[There] should be a rule, should be a time clock like in baseball. Come on, you never get a breakaway in a game and you do that.

"Even the stick twirl, we would hate that one on the bench too. I know we're living in a different era, but there's still something about having some dignity in the game. If I did that, 20 games from the other team would have jumped over the boards and somebody would have done it against us... you got to protect the goalies, right? If you can't get there in eight seconds, you don't deserve to be taking the shot."

Amid the criticism, Kuznetsov believes the NHL will eventually do something to block him from performing the move in the future.

"Well, they'll ban it," Kuznetsov said on the Hockey on Kinopoisk podcast earlier this month, adding, "They'll ban it [and] I'll come up with something new. In the meantime, I'm not going against the rules. Everything is clear, according to the law. If they ban, well, at least something will be remembered in the NHL, it turns out."

T.J. Oshie and the Capitals have defended the moves as well, saying he isn't doing anything that goes against the NHL Rulebook. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren also told The Hockey News that he doesn't have a problem with it, hough he did admit it's pretty difficult to shut down.

"Oh man, it's hard because he's obviously got such good hands and he's coming down super slow, so he's just waiting for that little bit of opening," Lindgren said, adding, "I think as a goalie, it's almost just like a read when you think he's gonna shoot the puck... I love that he's on my team because it's fun to watch and tough to stop."

Kuznetsov also laughed about the move in a 1-on-1 earlier this year.

"Mind game, right?" he joked. "I don't count the dekes in my head."