Mi-17 is nothing special. It is late 1950's technology comparable to the old Sea King in design but with an even lower payload than that old slug. It is not a very sporty helo to fly, in fact it's main difference from the Mi-8 was to lower the tail boom so the pilot would not chop off it's tail in flight by using too much back stick during aggressive military maneuvers! Just to make you feel better a lazy Sea King pilot could also amputate the tail boom if this pilot forgot to move the cyclic forward one inch upon touchdown, otherwise as the collective is lowered too much back stick will allow the blades to contact the tail rotor drive shaft tunnel ( I know an instructor who's students did in two old Sea Pigs this way in one month ). The Hip unfortunately could do this too you in flight with predictably catastrophic results. Hinds up through the D model have this same weakness and this bit a few Soviet pilots.
A Blackhawk or NH-90 will run circles around the many Mi-8/17/171 variants. The Mi-17 does not have very good hot and high performance either. Hinds could not hover out of ground effect in Afghanistan, neither can the Mi-17 with any load. This is not a great helicopter, just very inexpensive. For most that is good enough. It is the Russian equivalent of a 1950's era Sea King that has been kept in production in the absence of a more modern design to replace it. This is not a credit to Russian helicopter design. The sad thing is that the Russian companies have better designs to sell, but there is no one interested in financing any of these, so they sit unbuilt.
lets see if I'm right couple years down the track.