If you weren’t convinced of the depth of talent of Montreal Canadian prospect Ivan Demidov, his teammate with the St. Petersburg SKA might just persuade you.
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Anthony DeAngelo, who played with four different teams during his time in the National Hockey League (NHL) before making the jump to the KHL this season, had nothing but good words for the young 18-year-old forward.
“It is difficult for me to understand how three other players after Celebrini were chosen before him. I can’t imagine three other players having his skill level,” he said during an interview with Colby Cohen on the podcast Morning Cuppa Hockey.
According to DeAngelo, who has 210 points in 371 NHL games, Demidov will become, in the worst-case scenario, a top-6 winger who scores 30 goals per season.
“He’s a dynamic skater, he’s very strong on his skates, he flies on the ice. He has a very good shot, high level skills. For me, he will become at least a 30-goal scorer who will play in a top-6 position. It’s his floor, in my opinion,” he added.
Always very voluble, the defender from New Jersey was even called upon to compare the skills of his young comrade to those of Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid, two of the best hockey players in the world.
Although he wanted to slow down the ardor of the journalist who asked him this question, that did not prevent him from sending flowers to CH’s first choice during the last draft.
“A Russian journalist asked me to compare him to MacKinnon and McDavid and I was like ‘Wait a minute, I’m not going to put that pressure on him’. But he has world-class talent.”
In 30 games in the KHL since the start of the campaign, Demidov has scored six goals and 20 points. However, it should be noted that he almost never plays on the power play and spends an average of 11 min 5 sec on the ice per game.
Among all players who have played at least 20 games with SKA, he is the second least used striker by his coach.
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