The next season of the National Hockey League ends with the traditional and one of The most important event of the year is the ceremony of selecting young players in the draft. There are often cases when the decision of club managers to spend their draft pick on a particular hockey player ultimately affects the fate of the entire franchise. For example, the Chicago Blackhawks, who last year took with the first pick perhaps the main hockey player of the generation Connor Bedard, expect a corresponding positive in this.
Bedard is already an NHL star, although he played only one season, following which he became the league's best rookie. Now the bosses of the San Jose Sharks, who took the 2024 draft favorite McLean Celebrini with the first pick, will be in the same expectations. And if his candidacy was not subject to any doubts and did not bring any sensations, then the further order of the elections was difficult to predict.
For example, one of the main events of the entire event was the decision of the same “Chicago” to spend the second pick in the draft on Belarusian Artem Levshunov. The young forward has already gone down in the history of the entire Belarusian hockey: never before has a hockey player from Belarus been drafted so highly. Levshunov surpassed the achievement of the eminent Ruslan Salei, who was selected ninth overall by Anaheim in 1996.
Many experts also expected to see Russian prodigy Ivan Demidov in the top three. However, the talented forward from the St. Petersburg SKA system was selected fifth overall. The Montreal Canadiens secured the rights to the Russian in the NHL. Demidov became the first Russian player in the history of the most titled NHL club to be taken so highly by the Habs. The previous best achievement belonged to Mikhail Sergachev, drafted ninth overall in 2016.
By the way, it’s funny that shortly before the 2024 draft, the North American media, citing some scouts, began to criticize Demidov and talk loudly about Ivan’s alleged problems with skating. Later, Russian journalists found out that it was the Canadiens who could have caused the fuss, as if with the intention of scaring their competitors away from Demidov. In Montreal over the past year they have already regretted that they did not take Matvey Michkov last summer; they did not want to step on the rake.
By the way, Ivan was asked about Michkov literally right away . The Russian was asked who is better: him or Matvey. Demidov did not answer this question. The country's two main talents of recent years are being compared with pleasure both in America and in Russia.
Also among the top ten Russians in the draft was Anton Silaev. The large defender showed himself effectively in the last season of the Kontinental Hockey League — unlike Demidov, the player from Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo already has valuable experience playing at the adult level. The New Jersey Devils made a bet on Silaev — the last club for which the current Nizhny Novgorod coach Igor Larionov played in his NHL career. Anton became only the fifth Russian defenseman in the 21st century to be selected in the top ten of the NHL draft, and the third in the last three years: in 2022, Pavel Mintyukov was drafted with the tenth number, in 2023, Dmitry Simashev was drafted with the sixth number. . Trend?
In addition to Demidov and Silaev, two more Russians were drafted in the first round. It was expected that among them would be the talent from Dynamo Moscow Igor Chernyshov and, possibly, another representative of Torpedo Nikita Artamonov. However, they will be selected in the second round or even later.
Instead, Yegor Surin and Matvey Gridin were among the main prospects. Surin has gained a lot of positive reviews in recent months, and experts see great potential in it. But it’s unlikely that Yegor was lucky with the club — he was drafted 22nd overall by the Nashville Predators, where the Russians have recently had difficulty getting into the club’s core. However, the eminent Barry Trotz probably knows what he is doing and what he wants to achieve. As for Gridin, he already has experience playing in North America. Last season, the 18-year-old forward scored 83 points (38 goals and 45 assists) in 60 matches of the US Junior League championship and another 5 points (1+4) in eight playoff games. In the NHL, the rights to the Russian were secured by the Calgary Flames, who took Matvey with the 28th pick.
Four Russians in the first round of the playoffs — hockey players from Russia have shown this result for the second year in a row. In 2023, four of our players were also drafted in the first round: Dmitry Simashev and Daniil Booth (both Arizona Coyotes, now Utah), Matvey Michkov (Philadelphia Flyers) and Mikhail Gulyaev (Colorado Avalanche). .
It is noteworthy that even on the eve of the draft, the press service of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF), announcing the upcoming NHL draft (although the federation has nothing to do with the league), released its list of supposedly the best European prospects for the first round. The IIHF did not mention any Russians. The federation has become a habit of boycotting Russian hockey players and creating an atmosphere of supposedly complete absence of the existence of players from Russia. Belarus too. Meanwhile, of the total number of all Europeans in the first round of the 2024 NHL draft, half are Russians and Belarusians. Only two pathetic Finns were drafted, and the same number of Norwegians. And one more Czech. No Swedes, no Germans, no Swiss. Nobody even remembered them. As a result, all the attempts of the IIHF to show their “I” again turned out to be as pathetic and petty as possible, while an adequate part of the hockey world recognizes the talent and skill of Russian athletes.
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