David Ettedgui: “Ivan Demidov will be a member of the Habs on draft day”

In a few weeks’ time, the top prospects in the 2024 NHL Draft will know which Bettman organization has drafted them. At the moment, Macklin Celebrini may be the only one who really has a good idea of where he’s going, but the rest are probably in the dark.

This year, it really feels like the amateur auction could go either way.

In the case of the Canadiens, who hold the fifth pick, one suspects that the club wouldn’t mind selecting a forward. The club’s depth on the blue line is already solid, and it lacks talent on the attack.

No more complicated than that.

Of course, Celebrini will no longer be available, but it’s not impossible that Ivan Demidov, generally considered the second-best forward in the draft, will be.

And in his BPM Sports column of the day, David Ettegdui stated that Demidov will become a member of the Habs on draft day.

If we assume that Celebrini will be the first choice, that means that three players other than Demidov will have to be selected ahead of the Russian.

Seeing Artyom Levshunov confirm that he’s been feeling a lot of interest from Chicago this season shows that there’s a good chance he’ll be the #2 pick (and not Demidov).

Ettedgui then notes that Anton Silayev, the giant-sized defenseman, is seeing his popularity soar in the NHL. The former agent is fairly confident that if Silayev isn’t drafted by the Ducks at #3, he’ll be drafted by the Blue Jackets at #4.

And in his column, Ettedgui also notes that he wouldn’t be surprised to see the Habs talk to either the Ducks or the Blue Jackets to try to move up a spot or two should Demidov fall. I don’t believe it, personally, but okay.

This leads Ettedgui to say that Cayden Lindstrom will certainly be available in the fifth spot, and that Demidov will most likely be as well. And since he hears that the Habs like Demidov, he’s pretty confident that the Montreal team will draft him.

It’s worth noting that he sees Christian Dvorak leaving between now and the start of the next training camp, and that he has speculated on the possibility of a rather complex transaction between the Habs and the Blue Jackets that would see both teams swap their picks and see Dvorak and Patrik Laine change addresses.

We know that he sees Laine as a logical target for the Habs, and one might think that the transaction would be much more complex, but he did raise the idea.

So we’ll see if Ettedgui is right, but he seems pretty confident that Demidov will be a member of the Habs by the end of the month. In any case, I’m sure many Canadiens fans won’t mind…