You're big on skating, I've seen you mention it a lot. Have you any thoughts on Demidov?
Skating is to hockey what swimming is to water polo.
I have been around the game for 60 years: as a player, coach, manager, league convener, consultant, father and grandfather. And for the last decade plus, an executive director of a provincial sport organization that selects and enters teams at a national U18 hockey championship. In my long years of following this great game I can confidently state that the main separation between all levels of players is their comparative skating ability.
Over the years, I have been to hundreds of tryouts. They all generally start the same. Kids are lined up at one redline and race the length of the ice towards the other redline. Then they do it again. Then the kids do it backwards. Then again, up the ice and then back. Then the kids are asked to skate the five circles, first forward then backwards. Then these exercises are all repeated with pucks being introduced. At the end of these basic skating and skill exercises, which takes about 20 minutes, I always tell my staff, if they aren't available to identify the top 10 players and the weakest 10 players, they are in the wrong business.
So yes, skating ability (speed, agility, balance and explosiveness) is a prime consideration in my assessment of any player, at any level. As I have often stated, I follow the old Russian adage: If you can skate anything is possible. If you can't nothing is.
As for Demidov, I must confess that I fall within the group of observers who are somewhat uneasy about the level of competition this fine young player has been facing. For obvious political reasons, we have not had an opportunity to assess Demidov's comparative skills playing against elite competition such as the U18. That would have provided a much more accurate barometer of this player's comparative skills and upside potential. I wish I could have seen him play just once against elite competition. That missed opportunity may work as a blessing because a dominant Demidov would probably not have dropped to 5 OA.
What I have seen of Demidov on video indicates a player possessing an elite level of skill, who, if he can replicate that performance against superior competition, has a chance of becoming the most impactful player to come out of this draft and the best offensive player on Montreal since Richer.
After wandering in the wilderness of irrelevancy for over 3 decades when you get an opportunity to draft a player of such immense potential, you have to take the chance.
