| Ivan Demidov | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | L | C | 5’11” | 181 | Sergiyev Posad, RUS | 2005 | 2023-2024: A |
Game Grade: A
Comments: Ivan Demidov has been out for the last few weeks due to a knee injury but made his presence felt in this game with his first 2 points of the season. Ivan flies up and down the ice and consistently plays at a high pace. He moves using elite edgework where he opens his hips into heel-to-heel skating and propels himself around the ice. He is able to generate an absurd amount of speed in this position and can slip through tight spaces. He is incredibly agile and able to make quick cuts and spins to slip through traffic and escape pressure. His elite hands and well timed dekes make it easy to beat defenders 1v1 and his combination of speed and skill makes it nearly impossible to separate him from the puck. Ivan keeps his head up with the puck and makes constant scans of the ice which he uses to find and hit teammates in stride with well-timed and placed passes. He blends his dekes and passes to slip the puck to teammates in motion. He is a great playmaker and sets up tons of chances around the net with his ability to open up lanes with his hands and takes risks to attempt to find guys in front. His entire game when the puck on his stick is very smooth. He is incredibly talented but sometimes over handles the puck and loses it when attempting complex moves. He loves to make the highlight reel and this mentality can sometimes put him in rough spots where he is unable to complete the move he intended, resulting in a turnover. Ivan shoots the puck often. He was able to get 7 shots on cage in this game and he attempted at least double that throughout the game. His skill and ability to find space allows him to get some quality looks at the goal but he also forced a couple of bad shot choices from distance. He could have completed a pass when his lane was taken away, but he decided to shoot from low percentage areas instead resulting in easy saves/blocks. Demidov is a responsible player without the puck as well. He is very unlikely to ever win a Selke, but he plays a responsible defensive game and is consistently active in the DZ. He gets involved in board battles and is often the first guy to loose pucks. Demidov is no Primadonna and is not afraid to do the dirty work to help his team secure possession for his team. He picked up a secondary assist in the third when he helped transition the puck with a pass up ice. His goal came a few minutes later on a power play. He snuck into space in the slot and buried a feed from behind the net. A great showing of his ability to find space and finish in tight. Demidov is one of the best players in this year’s draft class and will likely go top 3-5 in June. He still needs to shake off a bit of the rust but should start raking in points in the MHL and earn a quick call up to the VHL then KHL.
| Yegor Graf | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | R | LW | 5’10” | 174 | Barnaul, RUS | 2006 | 2023-2024: B |
Game Grade: B
Comments: Graf is a player with a ridiculous amount of skill, but he does not understand how to use it correctly. He picked up three points in this game but the flaws in his decision making have caused me to question his potential. He can fly and shows off some great edgework when handling the puck in the OZ. He has skilled hands and was able to snake his way through opponents with quick dekes. His first assist came from a pass in the NZ where he head manned the puck and his teammate finished the job on his own. His second was a secondary assist in the third. Neither were really due to his playmaking. His goal came late in the third period on a rush attempt. Graf went hard to the net and was rewarded with a tap in goal on a clean pass from his line mate. Graf showed flashes in this game of his elite hands and skilled edgework, but his decision making causes some concerns. He often skates with his head down, scaring at the puck and seems to throw passes without looking. He often stick handles himself into trouble and a majority of his passes do not find their target if they had a target at all. Graf is an insanely skilled player, but he does not have the brains to be able to use it effectively.
| Matvei Korotky | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | R | C | 5’11” | 170 | Krasnoyarsk, RUS | 2005 | 2023-2024: C+ |
Game Grade: A
Comments: Korotky had a whale of a game tonight picking up 1G 1A and was very noticeable on both ends with his high paced play. He showed off his high-end speed and kept his motor going to push play up ice. He showed off elite hands and some great puck control under pressure. In one specific moment early in the game he pulled off a slick fake around his man on the rush, cut inside and maintained control of the puck through traffic with a couple of quick stick handles, then slipped a pass back door to set up a dangerous chance. He was able to pull off moves like this all night due to his pace of play and timing when attacking opponents head on. He snaked through the defense with his head up and found open teammates with well-timed passes in the OZ. His assist came this way when he essentially went coast to coast, made a quick move at the line and slipped a pass to a teammate trailing close behind who was able to bury the feed. He was very calm under pressure tonight and able to escape from opponents with skilled edgework and quick accelerations into space. He had the puck on his stick often and was responsible for generating a large number of chances for SKA. His goal came on an effort play in the second. He helped set up a zone entry with a quick touch pass then pushed hard to make his way to the doorstep for a tap in RB finish. He got himself involved in battles and finished his checks hard. Korotky has been one of the best players in the MHL this season and should be heavily considered as a mid-round pick in this year’s draft. He is a very quick player and has the skill/brains to push play towards the goal. My one complaint about him this year has been his consistency. There are some games where he is not as noticeable but more often than not, he has the feet moving and generates a ton of chances in the OZ off of the rush.
| Artyom Vilchinsky | SKA 1946 St. Petersburg | MHL | L | D | 6’6″ | 227 | Vladivostok, RUS | 2006 | 2024-2025: B |
Game Grade: B+
Comments: 2025 eligible Vilchinsky is going to be a monster. Standing 6’6 240 lbs at 17 years old, he is a summer of training away from being a top two-way defenseman in next year’s draft. His performances have been up and down throughout the season, but this was one his best performances in a while. For such a big kid, he can move around the ice very well and shows some real potential as a good line walking and transition defenseman. He was able to escape pressure well with quick footwork and some agile tight turns with the puck. He kept his head up and attempted to hit teammates with quick passes to move play up ice. Some missed their target, and a majority of his choices were to the first open man, but he shows potential in his ability to get play up ice through his passing. He joined the rush multiple times and was able to create a couple of opportunities deep in the zone. A couple of his choices were poor in timing, and he got burnt but one in particular he snuck down into the OZ to become a target for a teammate running out of space and was able to get a good scoring chance from the wing. Artyom has a heavy shot and fired it often tonight. He needs to work on his shot choices as he often fires shots into clogged lanes or directly into oncoming attackers but with space, he can rip it. Defensively he had a solid performance as well. He was able to stay in front of opponents well on the rush and had an active stick to break up play. He is going to need to improve his footspeed to keep up with more skilled opponents but was able to play some solid transition defense with a good gap and well-timed step ups. He is a physical player and crushed a couple of players into the boards in the DZ. His positioning is going to need some work and he was drawn out of position at times, but he has a year to improve on this before his draft. He is going to need to improve his speed, refine his agility, improve his pass timing and choices, and work on overall decision making to become the player he has potential to be. I have been happy with his improvements over the course of this year and expect him to become one of the top Russians in next year’s class.
Scout: Henry Lawrence