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Ivan Chekhovich is speedy, dynamic winger in the QMJHL. He’s 5’10’’, 172lbs and started playing in Russia, where he was born. His projections land him as being drafted somewhere between the 2nd and early-4th round.
Who is Ivan Chekhovich
Ivan Chekhovich is the leading scorer on his team, the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and, likely, one of the best in the entire QMJHL. His stats from EliteProspects are shown below.
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Chekhovich finished a point short of point-per-game status in the QMJHL. He got there by getting off to an absolutely lightening start to the season. Below is a graph of his point totals over the past 5 games over the course of this season.
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Between October 12th and November 4th, Chekhovich scored 17 points in 8 games, including four 2-point games and two 4-point games. He was quite good the rest of the year as well, but that hot start put him on the map and launched him into his current position as a top 5 QMJHLer in this draft.
If you’d like a more interesting breakdown of statistics, you can check out this excel file that was used for the Antoine Morand Profile. The long-and-short of it, though, is that he is the 3rd most prolific U18 scorer in the league after Nico Hischier and Antoine Morand. He is 4th among U18 players in the QMJHL in goals, 3rd in assists, and 3rd in points (primary and secondary). Other than Nico and Morand, the only play in the conversation is top 2018 prospect Anderson MacDonald who leapfrogs Chekhovich in primary points per game bumping him down to 4th.
Where is Ivan Chekhovich ranked?
NHL Central Scouting: 71st among NA (Down from 51 at Midterms)
What Others Say About Ivan Chekhovich
“Ivan Chekhovich is a real quick, agile skater with impressive edge work and an explosive first step that enables him to have good acceleration down ice. Dangerous off the rush with effective stickhandling, an accurate wrist shot, and good passing ability. Chekhovich has shown he can play both an offensive and defensive game as he skates hard to backcheck.” — Marshall Mackinder of HockeyNow
“Chekhovich is a dynamic player with an array of puck skills [...]. He’s very quick and accelerates to top speed faster than most of his draft peers. Chekhovich is a finesse player through and through, and he’s as dangerous around the net as he is on the rush.” — Steve Kournianos of The Draft Analyst
“High skilled elite forechecker who unearths pucks and scores by driving into the faces of the opposing defensers and contesting for pucks that should has never gone to him. A puck hound who will take a puck and ramp to top gear and then be in position for his own rebound. He seems to ramp up with the hint of being part of an odd man break, as if he smells blood” — Bill Placzek of DraftSite
Some Video
In the second play of the video above, you see a nice combination of his skills. He gets a takeaway, accelerates down the ice, and threads a needle to single-handedly convert the opposing teams possession into a scoring chance that becomes a goal.
The first clip is the one you wanna see. Great passing from the whole line, with Chekhovich’s final setup being the nicest.
An Opinion of Sorts
The weird thing about him is that he is a 2nd to 4th rounder of whom I’ve barely seen anything negative spoken. He’s competent in his own end, backchecks and blocks shots. He’s small, but not THAT small. At 5’10’’, he’s as tall as Kyle Palmieri. He’s lighter, but that’s expected for a younger guy. His potential may be even more visible on video than on paper. Having personally done the profile on Antoine Morand, I think Chekhovich was more impressive.
In the Morand profile I said that I’d take him at 48th. After doing more research on Chekhovich, I’d prefer to wait and get a guy like him in the 3rd or 4th instead of jumping at a slightly higher-pedigree player that has all of the same question marks.
Your Take
What do you guys think? How early would you draft Ivan? Would you pass on him completely? Why? Share your comments below, and thanks for reading!