Interesting acquisition by the Montreal Canadiens: Kent Hughes and the organization have seriously done their homework with Bogdan Konyushkov

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Elias Edmonson
September 10, 2023 (6:56 PM)

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During the last NHL draft, all the Canadiens fans were focused on the events of the first round, while Kent Hughes eventually opted for defender David Reinbacher.

However, a draft event consists of seven rounds in total, and the Canadiens organization took the opportunity to select a total of nine players, including three goaltenders.

As reported by Félix Forget from the website Danslescoulisses.com, there is one prospect that no one is talking about, but who could turn out to be an excellent decision on the part of the organization.

This is about a certain Bogdan Konyushkov, a 20-year-old Russian defender who was drafted in the fourth round by the Canadiens. Last year, he played with the Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in the KHL, and despite his harvest of 25 points in 64 matches, he was not a particularly coveted prospect.

However, some Canadiens scouts, including Nick Brobov, believed that Konyushkov could have easily been drafted two rounds earlier.

«If an overager in the NCAA had done the same as him last year, he would be drafted in the second round.» - Nick Bobrov

Turning a 4th round pick into a second-round talent, that's very interesting.

So it was clear that the CH had a certain interest in him, but as we know, the situation of Russian players has been rather delicate for years, and this was confirmed recently with the hot potato that is the Matvei Michkov file.

With Bogdan Konyushkov, we are not talking about a frontline prospect, which means that the risk of selecting him in the fourth round is less and that, at worst, the organization will not have wasted a high draft pick by taking a risk.

But to show you that the Canadiens took this selection seriously, the team's leaders directly contacted Konyushkov's coach in the KHL, the legendary hockey player Igor Larionov, and the contact was made quite easily because the latter is a former teammate of Martin Lapointe with the Detroit Red Wings.

The director of player personnel and director of amateur scouting for the Canadiens must have been convinced by the conversation he had with Larionov because the latter praised his impressive potential and outright called him one of the most intelligent defenders he had the chance to have on hand.

Although it is still too early to judge this selection and the young defender's arrival in Montreal is not for tomorrow, we are still talking about another quality prospect at the blue line.

At this rate, there will soon be a congestion of quality defenders within the organization, which is somewhat good news for Kent Hughes.