The Montreal Canadiens are going to have some interesting decisions to make during the first round of the NHL Draft.
The Montreal Canadiens are gearing up for the 2020 NHL Draft which takes place in just three days. They once held 14 picks for this event, but shipped out a few for Jake Allen and Joel Edmundson and still hold 11 picks.
It was be interesting to see how everything shakes out and how many picks they actually make. General Manager Marc Bergevin is obviously open to moving picks for immediate help, already pulling the trigger on a pair of deals.
Will he make several more trades? Will he shift gears and a couple more early picks? Will he swap some out for more picks in future drafts?
One option he does have, since there are so many picks and since he has already built up a great prospect pool is he can gamble a little bit. If there are players available that are highly skilled but maybe have a question mark here and there in other areas, Bergevin can afford to take a chance on a high risk/high reward type of prospect.
How many times in the past have we heard the Montreal Canadiens made a safe pick, they took a guy that will definitely play in the NHL, it’s just a matter of whether he can develop into a top six forward or if he is a third liner. Then we end up with Kyle Chipchura and Louis Leblanc.
Those aren’t the type of franchise players you hope to get in the first round.
There is a high risk/high reward type of player that will likely be available to the Canadiens with the 16th pick.
Rodion Amirov fits that decription. The risk part here is the dreaded “Russian Factor” that has been a little over-emphasized since the Columbus Blue Jackets failed to properly develop Nikita Filatov and Niolai Zherdev after taking them early.
The only real risk is that you usually have to wait a few extra years for a Russian to come to North America because they would rather play in the KHL than the AHL. But, we see skilled Russians fall a bit in the draft every year.
Back in 2010, Evgeni Kuznetsov showed all the signs of a highly skilled, offensive centre. He had 16 points in just nine games in Russia’s Junior league. He played 35 KHL games but had just eight points since he wasn’t given much ice time. He also made the World Junior team as a 17 year old and dominated the World Under-18 Tournament.
He fell all the way to 26th, where the Washington Capitals were happy to add a future centre for Alex Ovechkin.
In 2015, the Dallas Stars took Denis Gurianov with the 12th overall pick. He showed some promise along the way, putting up points at the AHL level but he finally broke out this year with 20 goals in 64 games and 17 points in 27 postseason games, helping charge the Stars offence to the Stanley Cup Final.
In his draft year, Gurianov scored 25 points in 23 games in MHL, Russia’s Junior league and he had just one assist in eight KHL games.
Amirov, the 6’0″ and 168 pound left winger from Russia, has put up similar numbers in his draft year as Kuznetsov and Gurianov. He scored ten goals and 22 points in 20 MHL games last season and added two assists in 21 KHL games. He was great at the World Under-18 Tournament over a year ago, scoring six goals and nine points in seven games, helping his team win silver and he was named to the Tournament All-Star Team alongside Jack Hughes and Cole Caufield at forward.
In the last decade, the only players taken in the first round who were playing in Russia at the time were Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeni Kuznetsov, Andrei Vasilevski, Valeri Nichuskin, Denis Gurianov, Ilya Samsonov, German Rubstov, Klim Kostin, Vitali Kravtsov, Grigorei Denisenko and Vasili Podkolzin.
Aside from Nichuskin, who never bounced back from major injury as a 19 year old, the first six have turned into impact players at the NHL level, The latter five on that list remain prospects, but they are among the top prospects in hockey at the moment.
Russian factor? At this point, teams are so scared to take them in the first round, they have to be beyond exceptional to even have a chance to be a first round pick. Rodion Amirov is going to be the next player on this list of Russian first rounders. It’s an impressive list, so let’s hope Marc Bergevin has his sights set on the winger. They might have to wait a couple years to get him to Montreal, but he will be worth the wait.