The talk of the 2024 NHL Draft class has been Macklin Celebrini, the player highlighted several years ago as the top prospect to watch, who is the consensus pick to go first overall, and directly confirmed to go in that spot by San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier a couple of weeks before the draft. During this time, however, Celebrini has been shadowed by another prospect, a forward plying his trade outside the spotlight of best-on-best international tournaments as his native Russia is barred from IIHF competition: a highly skilled forward named Ivan Demidov.
Birthplace: Sergiyev Posad, Russia
Date of birth: December 10, 2005
Shoots: Left
Position: Right Wing
Height: 6′0″
Weight: 181 lbs.
Team: SKA-1946 Saint Petersburg (MHL)
A season ago, he inscribed his name all over the scoresheet in the MHL, amassing 62 points in 41 games as he and his older brother, Semyon, carried the offence for SKA-1946 Saint Petersburg in Russia’s Junior league. This season with his brother graduated to the VHL, Ivan’s output ramped up with another year of experience, ending the season with 60 points in only 30 games for an average of two points per contest. He went on to contribute 28 points in 17 post-season matches, 11 of those goals.
As he hobbled around the Florida Panthers’ practice facility on an injured ankle last week at the Gold Star Hockey pre-draft camp, a combine of sorts for Russian players who weren’t invited to the main NHL Scouting Combine, he expressed some disappointment with not getting into more KHL games this season despite his dominance at the under-20 level. More games in the top tier — he’s played six total in the past two years — would have given NHL clubs a better read on how his game translates, but without that and the aforementioned lack of head-to-head games versus his draft peers, his work at the Junior level is what teams will be creating their draft lists from.
Despite the low quality of his competition, it’s clear that Demidov has some skills that are going to work no matter the level at which he plays. One of the most notable is that he doesn’t take shifts off or glide around the ice waiting for plays to develop to show off his talents; he leads the play and brings those opportunities to life.
It’s never long as he’s skating the puck up the ice before his exceptional puck-handling skills are put on display. His hands are quick and precise to keep the puck right where he wants it as he feints his way past defenders. He does so on a line that leads directly to the net rather than working his way to space along the boards as many young players do. As soon as he picks the puck up, he’s thinking about the most efficient way to get it into the net.
He finds so much success with his puck-handling because of how he attacks defenders. He does all of his work in the space between a defender’s skates and stick, a small area that is hard to cover. That has the combined benefits of allowing him to take a shorter route to the net than a player who tries to shield the puck and skate around an opponent’s reach, and staying out of reach of the next defender when he gets past the first. He seems to have figured out the game, and no one, at least in the MHL, could come up with a way to counter that move.
His vision of the ice has him continuously aware of where his teammates are, and crisp, accurate passes target that same bit of space an opponent can’t defend. His highlight reel is full of defencemen’s heads dropping down to see the puck zip past their toes and right onto the stick of teammates. They’re high-risk passes through traffic that don’t always connect, but Demidov reduces the danger with his accurate placement, and it’s well worth the trouble for the ones that do work.
The zippiness also applies to his shot. He gets it away quickly, and usually from a good scoring position thanks to his dekes to get into the slot. It’s not as effective as his passing, but is good enough to force opponents to respect it as one of his potential moves.
His transitions begin with explosive acceleration that get him up to his top speed quickly, gaining the initial step of separation from opposing players. His top speed isn’t particularly high however, so the gap can be closed by better skaters, who will chase him down at the NHL level before he gets a chance to attack one-one-one versus a facing defenceman. If he could work on his skating stride to gain a bit more pace, he could limit the options to shut him down. It’s safe to say his deft hands can keep up with any increase in speed he gains.
He won’t be seeing defencemen just waving at the puck as he slips it past them in the NHL, either. There will be more of a physical challenge to his offensive pushes, which he didn’t appear to face often in the MHL. He will discover that some of the tactics that worked nearly every time the past few years won’t be as effective, and he will need to learn new strategies.
Fortunately, he’s an intelligent player who will quickly adapt his tactics around those of his opponents. It’s difficult to shut down a player who processes the game at such a high level and sees plays developing well in advance.
Other than his skating stride, the main area of focus needs to be on the defensive side. With offensive skills like the ones he possesses, it’s hard to fault him for not developing this part of his game, but he needs to have the puck to be able to pull off his stick-handles and crisp passes. His hands are clearly skilled enough to strip pucks from attacking players, and his relentless energy should keep him in the play in his own zone. It’s likely just a matter of committing himself to that aspect of the game to become a complete 200-foot player.
Rankings
Dobber Prospects: #3
Elite Prospects: #2
Hockey Prospect: #4
McKeen’s: #2
Bob McKenzie (TSN): #2
FC Hockey: #2
NHL Central Scouting: #2 (European skaters)
Corey Pronman (The Athletic): #8
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): #2
As you can see from the draft rankings, the majority of outlets have him as the second-best prospect in the class behind Celebrini. There are a few things that could keep him from going in that spot. This class is full of high-quality defencemen, and the teams that finished near the bottom of the standings to end up picking in the first few slots of the draft typically have a dearth of talent at that position. It could also be that a team just likes one of the other forwards like Cayden Lindstrom or Berkly Catton a bit more.
Or it could be the “Russian factor” that has seen a lot of players from that country slip down the order for years. There is no transfer agreement between the NHL and KHL, so moves to the former from the latter are often clandestine, if they ever happen at all.
Some of the top teams may have been looking at the Matvei Michkov situation as a deterrent to selecting Demidov. Michkov held a similar status to Demidov last year as one of the very top-ranked prospects, yet fell to the Philadelphia Flyers at seventh. Unlike Demidov, who has just one year remaining on his contract and has stated that his desire is to be in North America once it concludes, Michkov had three that took him to the end of the 2025-26 season. However, just yesterday it was reported that Michkov would be signing a contract with Philadelphia after a year of hard-line talk from the Russian side, and the saga with Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov. That may be just the news a team needed to hear to remove any reservations about selecting Demidov.
