The «ban on Russians» turned out to be nonsense. Who was chosen as Ovechkin's heir?

Andrey SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsLeave to the authorThe 2022 NHL Draft ceremony has started in Montreal. According to the results of the first round, the North American managers made a choice in favor of three Russians at once. Did they want to ignore the Russians? These rumors turned out to be nothing more than just nonsense. The traditional ceremony of the NHL Draft is annually accompanied by unique stories. The Junior Draft, which began on July 7, was no exception. In recent months, many different scenarios have been drawn around him, including in relation to Russian players. The so-called «Russian factor» has been overgrown with a mass of rumors that NHL clubs will allegedly prefer not to choose youth from Russia in the first round. There were several reasons for this: military operations in Ukraine, the termination of the agreement between the NHL and the KHL, and then the story with goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov was added.