According to Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Canadiens top prospect and first round pick Mikhail Sergachev has been removed from his rookie-camp game after a check from behind by Vince Dunn. It’s unlikely he will return to the game.
Sergachev was taking part in the Canadiens rookie tournament against the Ottawa Senators today in London, and had already completed a wonderful rush to record an assist and open the scoring. His offensive game is well developed for such a young defender, leading some to believe he could make the jump to the NHL as soon as this season.
Taken ninth overall in the most recent draft, Sergachev was crowned the OHL defenseman of the year in his rookie season. His ability on the powerplay, along with a developing defensive game puts him among the game’s top prospects going into this season. If he has suffered a head or neck injury from the hit, it would be a big blow to his development time and possible start to his pro career.
Very dirty hit by Dunn. I was at the game and Sergachev was hands down the best player on the ice and single handedly set up the first 2 Habs goals. The Sens players got angry because of 2 big hits by Sergachev, one was a beautiful and clean hip check that happened to hurt a Sens player and the second was a hit from behind which he was penalized for. After that, the Sens were trying to take liberties on him in an effort to extract revenge. The play with Dunn happened right in front of me and Dunn took at least 5 strides before blind siding Sergachev and driving his head into the boards. Dunn should have been ejected but only got 2 on the play.