Alexander Sapozhnikov: Projection: Bottom 4 Defence Strengths: Poise, Stick skills, Size Weaknesses: Strength, Mobility, Top speed Note: Overager
Analysis:
Alexander Sapozhnikov is a huge puck-moving defenceman. He has immense poise with the puck on his stick. He never rushes to make a play and considers all his options before making the best play available. His passing and vision are extremely good, consistently getting his passes from tape to tape and finding open players through lanes. He is great at using his stick in every situation. He can use it very well to disrupt players on the rush, along the boards in puck battles to come out on top, or control the puck while he evaluates his options. His size is also a huge plus.
For someone as big as he is, I wish he would be a little harder to battle against. He uses body positioning well to put himself in a place to come out on top, but if he was slightly stronger he would almost never lose a battle against an opponent. His skating is also fairly good for someone as large as he is, but his agility and top speed could still use some work. He still has some work to do, but he could become a very good value pick in the middle rounds.
Karbainov showed both high-end flashes and inconsistency in this game, reinforcing the idea that he is still developing into a reliable draftable prospect. On the positive side, his game showed purpose. His movements were calculated, and his positioning was generally strong. He managed his aggressiveness well, challenging shooters when appropriate while staying composed on lower-danger plays. His skating stood out, especially his shuffles, which looked effortless and efficient. He adjusted quickly while maintaining a stance that allowed him to stay aggressive. The downside lies in his situational reads. There were sequences where he failed to recognize threats in the slot, leading to preventable goals. On other plays, he showed the awareness and execution to make high-end saves. That inconsistency is the main concern. The tools are clearly there, which should make him draftable, but likely later in the draft due to the lack of consistency.
Peshkov is one of the most entertaining prospects in this class, but also one of the toughest to evaluate due to his unique style. If one word defines him, it is electric. He is highly dynamic and flexible, making highlight-reel saves look routine. His compete level is elite, and he never gives up on plays. His physical tools allow him to contort his body in ways that very few goalies can. What was interesting in this game was his intentional positioning. Even within his aggressive style, he adjusted his body subtly to maintain angles on both the shooter and passing threats. That said, this style comes with flaws. His aggressiveness can push him out of position, requiring additional movement to recover. Rebound control is also inconsistent, with pucks often leaking through him. Overall, Peshkov is difficult to project, but the upside and uniqueness of his toolkit give him a legitimate case to be drafted.
After completing at least three viewings on each goalie listed below in the latter part of their respective seasons, I wanted to put together a more complete spotlight on some of the most intriguing draft-eligible goaltenders in this class. The goal here wasn’t only to evaluate results or statistics, but rather to identify projectable technical habits, physical tools, decision-making, and long-term upside through multiple live viewings and game situations. The following reports focus on the elements that stood out the most in recent viewings and how each goalie currently projects heading into the NHL Draft.
Carter Casey, Medicine Hat Tigers Carter Casey is probably one of the most electrifying goalies in this class and, in my opinion, the best mover of the bunch. He’s constantly active in his crease and stands out with his quickness, speed, and mobility. His athleticism allows him to contort his body and extend his legs to put himself in excellent position to make all kinds of saves without compromising his recoveries or overall structure. In my most recent viewings, I particularly liked the way he tracked pucks on long-range shots through traffic. He followed the puck extremely well even when it changed direction and reacted on time to place his body in front of tipped shots. That greatly helped limit dangerous rebounds and second chances. Casey also displayed excellent anticipatory habits on cross-crease plays, reading passes and identifying the shooter rather than simply following the puck. High-shot tracking remains something to monitor. On a few occasions, some pucks didn’t appear to be tracked cleanly and his body reacted with a recoil-like motion, with his head retracting into his shoulders. Casey also tends to drop to his knees too quickly instead of holding his edges longer, which can leave him vulnerable to passing plays and secondary chances. Overall, Casey projects very well thanks to his speed, athleticism, and the control element he’s progressively adding to his game. He should hear his name called somewhere around the third round of the draft.
William Lacelle, Blainville-Boisbriand Armada William Lacelle is another highly skilled goalie who may lack a bit of size by NHL standards. His biggest strength is undoubtedly the precision and speed of his movements, but digging deeper, his puck tracking is not far from elite. He reads releases extremely well and consistently keeps sight of the puck in nearly every situation. I also really liked his play reading. He has a strong feel for how sequences develop in the defensive zone and adjusts his game accordingly. The fact that he’s both quick and intelligent allows him to play aggressively while maintaining excellent angle coverage and strong recoveries on lateral plays and second chances.
That said, his speed and aggressive movement habits can sometimes work against him. There are sequences where he overmoves and ends up needing extra effort to recover positioning. Some teams may hesitate because of his lack of size, but he compensates with elite traits that, in my opinion, should guarantee him a selection in the third round or, at worst, the fourth.
Harrison Boettiger, Kelowna Rockets When watching Harrison Boettiger play, the first word that comes to mind is smooth. Everything about his game looks fluid, from the way he moves to the way he controls pucks. He’s particularly effective in the butterfly, sealing the ice extremely well with a wide flare and powerful drops. His butterfly slides are elite, efficient, and look effortless. That makes him very difficult to beat on low shots and highly effective on recoveries. I also like his puck tracking. While it may not be elite, it’s clearly above average, especially in how quickly he reads releases. However, it hasn’t always been his most consistent trait. I noticed some sequences where he briefly lost focus, which led to softer goals on clean long-range shots. Boettiger will also need to improve his play recognition and anticipation. Too often, he relies on his athleticism and excellent slides to cover space instead of anticipating plays before they fully develop. He’s a goalie with a lot of tools that I really like, but I don’t currently see enough to place him ahead of the goalies I value in the first three rounds of the draft.
Vladimir Proskurin, Atlant Mytishchi Vladimir Proskurin is one of the goalies who has made the biggest jump in my rankings throughout the season. Once viewed as a speedy goalie with some erratic tendencies, he has made tremendous progress controlling his movements and staying precise without sacrificing his elite traits. And the list of elite tools is long: quick feet, crisp edges, high-end athleticism. He also plays with an aggressive but controlled approach that makes him look much bigger than he actually is. That says a lot about how efficiently he covers angles. His puck tracking was also very good and he used active hands to catch and control pucks, limiting dangerous rebounds. The main thing I’d still like to see more of is his awareness of backside threats and peripheral options. He often reacts after the pass and relies heavily on athleticism to cover the distance. I really like both the upside and progression curve with Proskurin. He checks a lot of boxes for what modern NHL teams look for in a goalie and he should be one of the first goalies selected in the next NHL Draft.
Dmitri Ivchenko, Omskie Yastreby I’ve said it multiple times already, but Ivchenko is probably one of my favorite goalies in this class and certainly one of the most projectable long-term. The level of competition he faced was questioned throughout the year, but it’s impossible to ignore the tools and projectable traits he displayed all season. His overall game is extremely clean, but what stood out most was his ability to slow plays down and make everything look easy. That translated into elite puck tracking. His eyes stayed locked on the puck from the shooter all the way into his body. Whenever he gave up a rebound, his eyes stayed with the puck, making his recoveries quick and controlled. Throughout all my recent viewings, he remained extremely well positioned thanks to strong anticipation and highly efficient crease routes. There honestly weren’t many weaknesses that stood out in his game. However, on some occasions, he stayed locked into the overlap position for too long, which made him vulnerable against sharp-angle shooters and passing plays. Also, while his blocker stayed projected on slides and he caught nearly everything to the glove side, his hands could still become more active while moving to further improve angle coverage. Bottom line, Ivchenko will be near the very top of my goalie rankings and I fully believe he’s worthy of a third-round selection.
Michal Orsulak, Prince Albert Raiders Michal Orsulak’s stock is clearly trending upward right now, especially with Prince Albert playing in the WHL Final and after helping Czechia reach the final of the most recent World Junior Championship. Orsulak is a re-entry candidate after going undrafted last year before making the move to North America this season. At first glance, he has all the tools to be viewed as one of the top goalie prospects available. He’s big and possesses excellent mobility, especially through his lower body. That allows him to cover the ice very effectively. His legs stay active while in the butterfly, making him highly efficient on his knees. In my recent viewings, he was extremely difficult to beat on low shots. He also uses his large frame very well to stay square and take away a significant portion of the net. Despite his size, Orsulak moves fairly well overall. That said, I have major questions regarding his top-end lateral speed. On many occasions, he anticipated plays well and quickly identified the new shooter on passing sequences, but he lacked the pure speed needed to fully cover the distance and get set in position to make the save. That issue led to goals against, especially on plays coming from the corners or from behind the net. After multiple viewings, it looked more like a recurring trend than isolated mistakes. Also, while he read releases quickly, he didn’t always seem to fully track the puck into his body, which led to several uncontrolled rebounds into dangerous areas. For those reasons, I can’t fully buy into the trend of placing him near the top of my rankings. The lack of elite lateral speed and the concerns surrounding his puck tracking force me to rank him behind more complete prospects in those areas. Still, Orsulak remains a legitimate middle-round candidate in this draft.
Ivan Demidov is the next big talent tearing it up in Russia.
One of the highlighting stars of the 2024 NHL Draft when it comes to European skaters who unfortunately suffered a terrible injury that may withstand him from playing. Last season in the MHL right before he entered the KHL, Ivan truly showed his worthiness as he was the best player on SKA-St. Petersburg with an outstanding 62 points in 41 games.
Ivan Demidov already was on a positive start in the KHL, however, he unfortunately is a long term injury reserve. Even though the KHL is a very defensive men’s league, Ivan kept up to solid pace as he was a crucial player on the offense while only playing 3rd line.
Here at DraftPro, we have him currently ranked at 3rd overall in our latest ranking and has gained tremendous attention from scouts all over the world due to his electric playstyle. Let’s finally dive into what makes Ivan Demidov so special who could have a potential comparison to many NHL stars, as well as him displaying his most crucial tools that will serve him in the biggest league.
The question is why is Demidov seen as a top prospect for the 2024 NHL Draft in June? Tyler Ballesteros-Willard with Draft Prospects Hockey breaks down Demidov’s game as he tries to answers that question.
As a note, Ivan Demidov would be wearing #11 or #91 in blue or white for SKA St. Petersburg.
Allusive Skating
One of the true highlighting aspects of Demidov being an electrifying player his that he shows tremendous skating ability when transitioning through each and every zone. Every time he gains possession of the puck, he shows such confidence in his ability to the point where he can beat you by skating alone. The main aspect of his skating he demonstrates very effectively is his tomahawking abilities as he will swipe from side to side to create unease for the defensemen. Due to his tremendous lateral movement, he can easily go from one direction into another in a nick of time which he will even use his quick feet to his advantage.
Speaking of quick feet, including the combination of his world class agility, he displays tremendous speed to the point where he can beat you in a drag race. With his hyperactive extension and drive, it looks like he even displays a second step which gives him a tremendous advantage over his competitors. Here is a clip that displays him beating his opponents just with his skating alone.
Here is a short clip on how he uses his tomahawk skating abilities to confuse the opposition to create space for himself to make the best play available.
Here is a short demonstration on how Ivan with his quick feet can split the defense and put himself in an odd chance against the goaltender. This is key as he understands when to use his speed and agility to his advantage and does not overuse it.
Puck Skills
In addition to his Kirill Kaprizov like skating ability, his puck skills are the absolute definition of wizardry. His stick handling and deking ability are so fast to the point where his hands are as quick as his feet. What is so unique about his puck handling abilities to is that he does not telegraph his movements very easily which creates a lot of confusion for the opponents to the point where Ivan will deke out two to three opponents at once to give himself the space that he needs. Even when describing his puck control, he does not give that puck up very easily to the point where it is almost glued. Even with little time and space with the defenseman trying to hit him or poke the puck away from him, his stick handling is the definition of precision as there is a high percentage rate of him passing by his opponents with ease.
His passing ability, just the absolute definition of outstanding. How, very simple, he can dish the biscuit with ease to the point where it is threading the needle through two to three players at once. Each pass that he creates, they look so soft as he just lobs it like it is nothing, but in reality, they also come very crisp and hard which does not come very easily from many NHL players today such as mainly Patrick Kane with the elite puck skills that Ivan has in his toolbox.
Here is a clip below of Ivan just absolutely crippling the defense with his NHL like stick handling and deking abilities. This shows while he is facing two to three opponents at once, Ivan has such confidence to the point where he will take it himself.
Here is another clip of Ivan but this time using his tremendous passing abilities just absolutely threading the needle between the defensive players.
Locked-in Marksmanship
When it comes to picking targets from any location on the ice, there is none better in Europe of the 2024 NHL draft than Ivan Demidov. The fact of the matter is each puck he shoots is off in a heartbeat. When shooting from up close, he is so accurate to the point there may be only a puck size open, and he will thread it through like no tomorrow. The key for him is him in the slot, he knows in advance where he wants to shoot, and he does not even take his time which for him is absolutely key. When discussing the power of his shot, while it may not be Alex Ovechkin level yet, not only he can get it off quick, but they can also be heavy. When discussing the shots from the outside the circles or further out, this is where he displays his power due to his one-timers. His accuracy though, actually comes from his wrist shots. It becomes tremendously satisfying the way he displays his drag release shot as he doesn’t even take a second to create his space and power.
The clip below demonstrates how Ivan uses his tremendously quick release from in tight with high velocity as well as his precise accuracy with this very low inside the slow snapshot with no time to kill.
The following clip below demonstrates his shooting abilities from far out with his power while maintaining the accuracy with his toe-drag release mechanism as it finds its way through a crowd.
Master Offensive Awareness
Of course, the aspect that ties everything into what makes Ivan Demidov one of the more special players of the 2024 NHL Draft, that is his wizardry of a mind. Every time he is in the offensive zone, he is in his own league when it comes to playing chess as not only, he looks like he is a couple of steps ahead in front of the opposition, but he is not a cookie cutter type player. When trapped in a situation, he loves trying to figure out ways to get out of trouble creatively and very beneficial to him. He becomes similar to having the intelligence of “Mega Mind” in the offensive zone because of the fact he is always hyperactively thinking in advance. Not to mention about his hyperactive thinking, he has the vision and the intelligence of a jumping spider as not only he anticipates and telegraphs the opponents, but he also anticipates and reads his teammates at a very sufficient level.
One aspect that is key for Demidov is that he shows tremendous motivation in his game when trying to play defensive in the offensive zone when trying to retrieve the puck back. When discussing about his awareness of his surroundings such as the opponents and his players, he looks like he has eyes in the back of his head considering he can read his own teammates at first class. An underrated portion of his offensive awareness too is his positional awareness. What is unique about this is that even though he primarily plays on the wing, he will give the support as much like he were playing as a centerman which is not seen very often. A spot too he loves playing around is just near the trapezoid area which is also known as “Gretzky’s Office”. That being said, even though behind the net his favourite spot to use his incredible mind, he is versatile with his mind anywhere in the offensive zone as well as transitioning up the rush when lugging the puck.
In this following clip, Ivan demonstrates why he is incredible at anticipating his teammates when they are not even at their preferable spot yet which leaves the opposition into disbelief and unorganized off the draw.
The clip below demonstrates Ivan’s unique abilities of supporting his teammates around the boards in the offensive zone as well as creating his tremendous vision as he made this play very subtle but very transitioning which translated to a goal.
Improvement Needs
As much of a special player Ivan Demidov is, there are still some inconsistencies in his game. The aspects will be divided as follows: Minor improvements, and the major improvements. The minor improvements are detailed in mainly in his defensive game as even though he is considered average defensively for his playstyle, there are some minor inconsistencies that can be improved in a short period of time. The major improvements will be focused on his physicality aspect because not only it highlights his inactivity in throwing hits which does not correlate well with the NHL level. Another aspect that does not help Demidov’s case is that he does not handle hits well as he can get very effected by it which unfortunately led to his injury.
When discussing the minor changes needed to Ivan’s game is that yes, he is crucial when shot blocking whenever he is in position as he has good technique when blocking. The key word however as a winger, he sometimes plays too low which leaves the defense wide open due to his habits of also playing center part time. When transitioning through the neutral zone on the defense, yes he may try to stick lift a lot to try to help his defensive pair when retrieving the puck back, the problem is for Ivan is that sometimes there is a lack of motivation when playing in the defensive end similar to William Nylander. This then translates into the following risks, a penalty like hooking or slashing, or a lost odd man rush which translates into a crucial scoring chance. Another small consistency that he has to work on is him having the puck in the defensive end. Even though Ivan has a high confidence level at making plays happen from nothing, he has to play a little simpler in the defensive end to create a lower risk percentage of making a turnover. Other than those small consistencies, we absolutely believe he can overcome it in a short period of time due to his active problem-solving mind.
When discussing the major improvements needed to grow Ivan’s game is that he does not have a physical side to his game, and it mainly involves him being a finesse player. Even though Ivan has not fully matured yet, for his age, he is 170 when he should be aiming for 180 in order for him to become more durable on the ice. When discussing the physicality aspect itself, he has very little interest in throwing hits but most importantly, sacrificing his own body to weaken the opposing team. Each time he throws a hit, not only that there is lack of follow through in his checks, but what is important is that there is lack of intent to weaken the opponent. Once in a while too, he can get reversed. When taking a hit, he does not try to brace the hit as he just tries to slip away which could then place him in very vulnerable positions. The game of hockey in North America can become very rough and if Ivan does not want having to deal with anything physically, then he will have to learn the difficult way. At the end of the day, not only he needs to build the muscle in order to build his longevity, but most importantly, his confidence and intent to cause trouble and harm to the opposition.
Summary
At the end of the day, what you get in a player like Ivan Demidov is a generational offensive dynamo with the mind of a master chess player. Each time he gains possession of the biscuit, his ability to think many steps ahead of the opponent, find creative solutions involving his puck handling abilities, as well as creating tremendous execution at creating space with his skating or precisely hitting the net is considered to be up to par at the NHL level. It is so translatable as when he has the puck, he can almost have the level of “Speedy Gonzalez” by quickly transferring from one direction to the other with his incredible edgework in a short period of time. Once he develops and fixes his inconsistencies of lack of physicality as well as him having minor inconsistencies in the defensive end, due to his incredible “East-West” style of player, he will no doubt about it be a 1st line winger of the future and could be compared to a lighter end version of Alex Kovalev.
