When I saw some video of Ivan Demidov’s playoff goal yesterday. I thought it was time to track how he does it. Before I go over where some of his goals are coming from. I thought it would be fun to see how some of his numbers look compared to last year. Pre-draft, around February, he was averaging 15:35 TOI, six shots per game and 57% of his shots were hitting the net according to InStat. Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/fb37a938-aad2-4be7-a459-2e2a12237217.jpeg] This year, with all the issues that we’ve chronicled, He’s averaging fewer minutes, I had a feeling but needed to see that. He’s only averaging 13:47, it’s a miracle he has produced the way he has. Now, he is in the KHL full time and last year he was in the MHL so there’s that too. He’s averaging 55% shots on goal. That’s solid. It’s hard to get in the 60 range honestly. What impresses me the most so far is the fact that he’s winning 46% of his puck battles. That’s great considering he is doing that against men. His highest rate of scoring and best chances have been just outside of the crease. That works for Matvei Michkov and it will work for him at the next level too. One thing I noticed is if he’s shooting from the dots some of those shots are getting blocked. That will happen in the NHL too except on the power play. 5-10 feet out with his trickery and quickness is the way that he will pot a lot of goals especially if he has talented linemates. Then he will be a handful to try and cover.
