Matvei Michkov was, at worst, considered a 1B option to Connor Bedard in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Yet 5 teams passed him over and allowed him to drop to 7th overall.
He was the best player in the league this year from that draft.
They passed on him at 5th overall.
The Blackhawks drafted Artyom Levshunov 2nd overall instead of drafting Demidov to pair with Bedard.
The Anaheim Ducks drafted some kid named Beckett Sennecke 3rd overall instead of Demidov.
The Columbus Blue Jackets thought Cayden Lindstrom would be a safer pick at 4th overall.
Seems like it was a good idea.
Ivan Demidov had just got off a plane from Russia.
He flew into Montreal on Friday, and made his NHL debut last night.
The handle at the blueline.
The vision and hands down in tight around the goalline.
Ivan Demidov will have a couple hundred assists that look just like that throughout his NHL career.
And he’ll probably have a hundred goals that look just like this one.
Wayne Gretzky played 1487 career games.
That means he played 4461 career periods.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep that pace up the rest of the night.
So Gretzky’s points record might be safe for the time being.
Makes you wonder why Montreal wouldn’t put him out there for the shootout.
I know Caufield, Laine, and Suzuki is a pretty dangerous lineup.
