Ivan Demidov has suffered a serious knee injury in recent days

With the Canadiens out of the current NHL playoffs, the focus in Montreal is increasingly on the draft.

Yesterday, the NHL confirmed that the draft lottery will take place on May 7.

A date to circle on your calendar pic.twitter.com/6l8PsT3LCb

– DansLesCoulisses (@DLCoulisses) April 26, 2024

Obviously, we expect Macklin Celebrini to be the first player drafted, but after him, things could get complicated. There doesn’t seem to be a clear second option, and the candidates are numerous.

Among them is Ivan Demidov, a young Russian prodigy who is dominating in his native Russia this season. It’sworth remembering that the Habs would be willing to select him, which wasn’t necessarily the case for Matvei Michkov last year.

However, in the last few days, a situation has flown under the radar in Russia: Demidov suffered a serious knee injury in the MHL final… and it doesn’t look good, as he was seen on crutches in the days that followed.

It’s not his first knee injury this season: he was sidelined in October for the same reason.

His team eventually won the championship a few days later, so Demidov was seen celebrating on the ice with the rest of the group.

He had his crutches in hand, as well as a walking boot on his left foot.

The question now is whether this injury will have any influence on the upcoming draft. Two injuries to the same knee (including this one, which seems particularly significant) is something that could possibly scare off some teams.

With equal talent, taking the player with no history of knee injuries becomes a much more interesting idea.

The talent is undeniable for Demidov, who just scored 34 goals and 88 points in 47 games this season… but let’s hope for the kid ‘s sake that he avoided the worst with his most recent injury.

And above all, let’s hope he can return to top form as soon as possible.

In short

– There will be plenty of talent at this tournament.

– Michael McCarron fined.

– Nice try, as they say.

– A nice consolation prize.

– Really?