During a candid chat with Georges Laraque at the airport, a Montreal Canadiens scout revealed why the organization sniffed at Matvei Michkov in the National Hockey League’s fifth draft.

The former strongman returned to this meeting on The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro.

“I went to see him and asked him, ‘What have you done? Why didn’t you call up Michkov?’” Laraque said.

The recruiter in question would have initially stated that the Stanley Cups are won with good defensive brigades. The CH defense is particularly promising with the youngsters David Reinbacher, Kaiden Guhle, Logan Mailloux and Lane Hutson.

“Then,” Laraque continued, he spoke to me about culture, which is important at the Montreal Canadiens. He pointed out that having a bad apple in the locker room isn’t going to work in Montreal given the culture the organization is trying to build.

The CH therefore had doubts about Michkov’s attitude.

“They relied on the echoes from Russia,” Laraque explained. Negative stories about him causing problems and not being a team player are circulating.

In an interview with TVA Sports, Martin Lapointe, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur recruitment, also explained the reasons why Reinbacher was chosen over Michkov, but was a little more vague.

“We didn’t despise his talent, he’s very talented, competitive, works well on the bottom of the ice,” he said of the Russian. It’s a little worse on the other side of the ice rink, but you live with your mistakes. But there were also so many unknowns, three years of waiting, so we leaned towards David.