Dmitri Kostenko

July 2021 – Kostenko was selected in the third round, 87th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2021 NHL Draft. Dave Hall

April 2021 – Kostenko is an interesting case of a player who clearly exhibits skill, skating, and creativity while playing on a team that has very few other players that stack up. When in the VHL, he had very little help. On the MHL club, outside of fellow 2021 draft prospect Fyodor Svechkov, there isn’t much to work with upfront. Kostenko is at his best when he is able to find himself some room with his feet and the puck on his stick and then dishing passes around the offensive zone. He plays with a bit of deception, looking off opponents and threading a no-look pass off his backhand or faking a shot and finding a teammate on the backdoor. He has some decent skill but there are times when his puck handling can get a bit wild and uncontrolled. There is a creativity to his game that is impressive at times but there are quite a bit of missed passes or reads that his teammates don’t have the ability to make. As a defender, there are some concerning trends. He is a bit lackadaisical when defending in zone, stick parallel to the ice and disengaged. Kostenko needs to gather himself when the puck is on his stick in his own zone at times as he has a tendency to force passes up ice. He can often see the developing play but sometimes rushes the pass and turns the puck over. At the end of the day, Kostenko is going to be an interesting development project, and the fact that he plays on an underwhelming team in Russia is likely to lower his draft stock. Where he goes in the draft could be later than he is listed on many public rankings. Tony Ferrari