Montreal Canadiens prospect Dmitri Kostenko skating during a hockey gamePhoto credit: Rumeurs de transaction

Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk’s GM Sergei Gusev didn’t hold back when speaking about one of the Montreal Canadiens’ prospects, asbolutely tearing Dmitri Kostenko apart.

French-language website TVA Sport reported on some very negative comments made by Gusev about one of his players, a prospect of the Montreal Canadiens. The former 3rd round pick of the Habs only played one season for Gusev, but that didn’t stop him from absolutely ripping into his quality of play. The quote below is in French, but translates to Gusev saying “He will never make it [to the NHL]”.

Dmitri Kostenko, espoir du CH repêché par Timmins en 2021, a pris son erre d’aller dans la VHL, en Russie, la saison dernière.

Mais le DG de l’équipe pour laquelle il a éclos est incapable de le sentir!

«Il ne se rendra jamais [à la LNH].»

These comments are not something that GM of the Canadiens Kent Hughes wants to hear, but unfortunately for Hughes, it only got worse from there. Gusev was quoted saying the following:

“He doesn’t want to learn, he just wants to do his own thing,” said Gusev with disgust. “You tell him to pass the puck across the ice and he will give the puck to the opponent anyways.”

“On top of it, if you don’t put him on the power play he pouts,” added Gusev. “He won’t saying anything but you can see it in his body language, he drives me crazy, seriously.”

image

Gusev does not believe that Kent Hughes will be offering any kind of contract to Kostenko in the future. This is a major issue that Hughes will have to deal with. Do the Habs ignore the criticism coming from Russia, or does Hughes act quick and try to pull the trigger on a trade before more negative comments surface?