The CH asked Igor Larionov before the draft

Before the last draft, Bogdan Konyushkov’s name was relatively unknown throughout the NHL. Despite his excellent season in the KHL last year (25 points in 64 games), the 20-year-old defenseman wasn’t a particularly coveted prospect.

How coveted? So much so that the CH thinks he could have been drafted two rounds earlier. In the end, they selected him in the fourth round.

Clearly, then, the Habs did their homework on the young Russian. And in the end, it goes even further than you might think, as the club went straight to the source: Martin Lapointe asked his former teammate, Igor Larionov, about the defenseman.

Konyushkov plays for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, the club Larionov coaches.

Speaking of the defender, Larionov praised his “impressive potential” and described him as “one of the most intelligent defenders I’ve ever had”.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Larionov’s love for the young defenseman: earlier this summer, we learned just how much confidence Larionov had in his young protégé.

It’s not for nothing that he found himself playing 20 minutes a game in the KHL, even though he wasn’t even 20 at the start of last season.

And clearly, in addition to having Nick Bobrov well plogued in Russia, the fact that Lapointe is able to get information from Larionov shows just how impressive the Tricolore’s scouting resources are in the country.

If they did so much homework on Konyushkov, imagine how much they did to evaluate Matvei Michkov’s candidacy. And when you look at what’s happeningwith the latter in Russia right now, you’d think they might have been right.

In short, we’ll see what the future holds for Konyushkov, but clearly, the CH made sure they had all the info on him by contacting none other than Igor Larionov. Well done, then.

In gusto

– Retirement for Kevin Poulin.

– That’s right.

– Details of Tristan Luneau’s entry-level contract.