Lapointe: ‘He’s the steal of the Draft’ 

LAS VEGAS – Canadiens director of player personnel and amateur scouting Martin Lapointe and co-director of amateur scouting Nick Bobrov were very satisfied with the Habs’ prospect haul following the conclusion of the 2024 NHL Draft.  

Here are a few highlights from their press conference on Saturday: 

Please note that answers have been modified for clarity and conciseness. 

Lapointe on Ivan Demidov’s personality:  

You could see it when he got on stage. He has a bit of flair and is confident. It’s a good kind of confidence. We like his fight, he’s a young guy who wants to be a game-breaker and get the crowd on its feet. He has a lot of dimension to his game and I think he’s the steal of the Draft. He’s the player we were looking for and we’re lucky that he was available at pick No. 5.  

Lapointe on drafting Aatos Koivu: 

We watched Aatos a lot this season. He’s a responsible guy on the ice, a guy who is very dedicated to hockey. Obviously, his dad was also a player, and Saku’s talent has carried over to Aatos. We like how responsible he is on the ice and he’s going to keep improving.

Lapointe on selecting many forwards at the 2024 NHL Draft:  

We added a lot of offensive talent and skill. [...] We picked guys with good size who like to compete, so Nick and I are really happy with our haul.

Bobrov on picking Demidov: 

We’ve known Ivan for a number of years now because of my dad’s position [with SKA St. Petersburg] and knowing young players in that organization is a big part of his job, so we knew the kid, the family really well. [...] We felt that we might have a chance at him, but not a significant one, and it [ended up working] out. Clearly, he was very happy to end up in Montreal. His family was looking forward to that. Part of the reason he wanted to be in Montreal is because he loves pressure, and he embraces pressure and thrives on it. [...] He was very, very impressive, and I think he’ll continue to impress. 

Bobrov on Demidov’s ceiling: 

I think it’s very, very high. He’s been compared to [Nikita] Kucherov, [Kirill] Kaprizov... It’s a little bit of everything in there. His ceiling is as high as some of the best players in the League. He expects nothing less than that from himself, which is the most important part. 

Bobrov on the talent and variety of players from the last three Drafts: 

We felt we were fortunate to end up with the players we ended up with in each of those Drafts. They’re different flavors, sizes, styles. You need different types of players to compete for the Cup. They can’t all be the same, but they all need to really want to win and accept the pressure that comes with the territory where our team happens to play. We felt confident that the types of people that we brought into the organization will deal with that pressure aptly and Ivan is certainly a big piece of that puzzle.