The Montreal Canadiens finally drafted their next offensive superstar, Ivan Demidov, and he comes from the way off land of Russia. Demidov is poised to be the next offensive superstar when he comes over to North America, and will hopefully reach the height's of today's subject. Habs fans hope that Demidov's high-octane offensive skill will make him the greatest Russian Montreal Canadien, but he will have to dethrone the reigning king: Andrei Markov.
Markov was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the 6th round in 1998, in an interesting draft. Vincent Lecavalier was drafted first overall, and came as advertised. But the high end talent wasn't super high in the first round. The other first 3 draft picks were David Legwand and Brad Stuart. Other notible names in the first round include Alex Tanguay, Robyn Regehr and Scott Gomez. Good players, but not all-timers.
Instead, the biggest names were more spread along the rounds. The second round had the Mikes, Fisher and Ribeiro, the third saw Brad Richards and Brian Gionta selected. But three of the biggest names were taken all the way in the sixth round.
At 161st overall, the Ottawa Senators selected Chris Neil, a rough and tumble forward who played over 1,000 games in the Nation's Capital, and had his number retired just last year. One spot later, the Habs took young Russian defender Andrei Markov. And then, just 9 spots later, another Russian was taken and became one of the most electric offensive forces the league has ever seen: Pavel Datsyuk.
Back then, the Russian factor was as strong as ever, and big name Russians, like the supremely talented Datsyuk and the defensive Markov went much lower than they should have. Datsyuk had already played games with Yekaterinburg Dynamo, and would stay in Russia until coming over in 2001.
Andrei Markov was playing with Voskresensk Khimik, and then moved to Moscow Dynamo after being drafted and played in Russia, in what would become the KHL in 2008.
However, after cutting his teeth in the second strongest league in the world, Markov came over to North America, and made an immediate impact. After playing 16 games with the Quebec Citadelles, the Montreal Canadiens' AHL affiliate at the time, he made the jump to the NHL full time, playing 64 games in his first season.
Markov was a well-rounded defensive prospect, having the capability to handle himself in both the offensive and defensive zone, and his third season proved that, the young defender scored 13 goals and 37 points.
After returning to Russia for the lockout season, Markov came back to the Canadiens, and recorded the best run of his career. In 4 seasons, Markov scored 44 goals and 217 points in 304 games, becoming Montreal's top defender and one of the premier defenders in the entire league. In the middle of that, he was named an All-Star starter in 2007.
Unfortunately, Markov had a heavily injured knee, and played just 20 games in two seasons from 2010-12. But, he eliminated any questions of his health by missing just two games in three seasons from 2013-16. While he never quite reached the offensive numbers he previously did, he was often playing alongside offensive defender P.K. Subban.
After playing 62 games in the 2016-17 season, Markov became his own agent, and began to negotiate what would likely be his final NHL contract with Marc Bergevin. Unfortunately, there was some sort of miscommunication that caused quite the rift between Markov and the team, and Markov would finish his career in the KHL, after playing 990 games with the Montreal Canadiens.
When looking at the greatest Montreal Canadiens defenders, three names come up. There's Larry Robinson, without a doubt the peak. He leads the team defenders with 1,202 games played, 197 goales, 686 assists and 883 points.
Next, there's Guy Lapointe. Lapointe played just 777 games with the Montreal Canadiens and scored 166 goals, 406 assists and 572 points. Second most in points and goals among Habs blueliners.
Next in line is Andrei Markov. He tied Lapointe with 572 points with the Canadiens, and was alone in second place with 453 assists, behind just Robinson. The only question is if Markov didn't lose practically 2 full seasons in the middle of his career, or had his NHL career cut short by poor negotiations, who knows how close he could have come to Robinson, although it may not have ever been enough to catch him.
But being second best, especially on a team with such an illustrious heritage as the Montreal Canadiens is nothing to sneeze at, but Markov's impact was more than just on the scoresheet.
His nickname was 'The General' and he truly earned that name. He was the consumate, cool professional, to the point that it is hard to find first hand information on him, and he kept everything close to the chest.
However, his teammates sing his praises at anyone who would listen. Markov was also a rock in one of the most tumultuous eras in Montreal Canadiens history. There was a power struggle between the likes of Marc Bergevin, Michel Therrien, Max Pacioretty, P.K. Subban and Carey Price, and Markov continued to lead quietly and be a steadfast force on the backend.
Despite all the injuries and the weird end to his time as a Montreal Canadien, Markov is undoubtedly one of the top 3 defenders in Montreal Canadiens history. The amount of time that he was a high level defender and how much he put into the team, even becoming a Canadian citizen, he is unquestionably the greatest Russian player to lace up the skates for the Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge, and only time will tell if we will continue to say this, or if someone else will come up very soon to dethrone The General.