Didn't Montreal's scout say the unknown surrounding Michkov's contract contributed to the team picking one guy over another? I thought it was pretty explicit last year at the draft. The risk of Michkov not coming over immediately was dangerous for GMs who are graded every season. Also, there were some people who even questioned whether he would come over at all. Those were always ridiculous voices. The other factor I heard was scouts in the NHL had not seen him in person since the tournament before Russia was booted from international Competition in 2021.
I think if you asked experts on the day of the draft when these decisions were being made "waiting for Michkov" was why he fell. Some may argue positional value too, but those people were influenced by his KHL contract too. I wonder if there were no conditions such as that, if some of the teams taking center would have weighed Michkov differently with the wait ending up being one season.