Ivan Demidov

Last Season

Nineteen goals and 43 assists in all 82 games for 62 points, on fifteen and a half minutes a night — the least ice time of anyone in the top six. Seven power-play goals. He played 78 percent of his five-on-five minutes with Kapanen on what was nominally a third line and did not play like one.

The Finesse Game

The hands are the reason he went fifth overall and they are the real thing. He beats defencemen one-on-one in tight spaces, he delays and drags pucks through sticks, and he sees passes that his linemates have not thought of yet — which occasionally means the pass is not received, and will stop meaning that as they get used to him.

The shot is quick and accurate without being heavy. Most of his goals come from the inner slot after he has made somebody miss.

He generated 62 points on the fourth-most ice time among the club’s forwards, which is the number that matters. Give him twenty minutes and top-line linemates and the totals go somewhere else entirely.

The Physical Game

Six-one and 192, and still filling out. He is not afraid of the middle of the ice but he loses puck battles to grown defencemen and gets rubbed out along the wall. That will change with strength; it is the normal rookie tax.

The Intangibles

He came out of Russia with a reputation as the most skilled player in his draft class, and the first NHL season did nothing to argue with it.

There is genuine star potential here — the kind that changes what a franchise can aim at. The only projection worth making is that the ice time is going up.