NHL Scout Makes a Shocking Declaration on Top Russian Prospect

During a recent episode on his Recrutes podcast, former Montreal Canadiens scout Grant McCagg made a shocking report on Russian phenom Matvei Michkov.

McCagg believes that with Russia trying to keep all their players in the country for the foreseeable future, he can't see an NHL team drafting him in the first round.

Michkov is the best Russian prospect since superstar Alex Ovechkin, as at 16 years old he broke the Capitals forward's Junior records. With that being said, it's hard to truly take McCagg's claim with anything but a grain of salt, especially if he'd easily be a top 3 pick along with Connor Bedard and Adam Fantili if he came from anywhere else. Now, it's fair to believe that he may slip a little given it could take longer than the original 3 years for Michkov to come over to North America if he does at all.

However, given that some teams have multiple first rounders in this year's draft, including the St. Louis Blues who currently have three, it's really hard to believe that no team will take a chance with one of their picks to get such an electrfying prospect.

While, it's interesting how teams react to Russia trying to keep their players at home, it shouldn't impact the Russian phenom that much to where he falls out of the first round right?

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