What could they have gotten for Michkov at 2024 draft, I wonder.
In general I think teams in that situation should just take the best player and trade him later. Maybe picks 2-5 from the 2024 draft would have been on the table for Michkov if the news had come out that he would come over after a trade.
But then again when I look at those clubs in 2024, largely the same ones who passed on Michkov the first time, I could see a lot of them having reasons (good and bad reasons) to prefer other picks. I didn't like Chicago taking Levshunov, but they seem to think drafting more small forwards would be a mistake. The Ducks, as we have talked about, go to the beat of their own drum, and haven't taken many players out of Russia. In general, don't expect what you think or what most public lists think to be what Ducks scouts think.
The Jackets might have preferred Michkov to Lindstrom, there was uncertainty for both. But one is huge and the other very short, and we know how scouts think. We've had so much drama already about Montreal passing on Michkov, do you think they would have traded their pick for him? Demidov is the faster more robust more complete player, and I could see some choosing him anyways.
Basically Arizona probably would have wasted their time if they drafted Michkov and then traded him a year later.