You’ve probably seen the Dos Equis beer ads featuring the Most Interesting Man in the World, originally portrayed by actor Jonathan Goldsmith.
While Nick Bobrov doesn’t have a silver-haired beard like Goldsmith, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur scouting reminds me of the Most Interesting Man in the World every time he speaks with the media.
Unfortunately, we only get to hear from the Canadiens’ most interesting man once a year — after the NHL Draft wraps up. Bobrov is always articulate and elegant when answering questions in his measured tone. His answers are also very interesting.
That was the case again late Saturday afternoon when Bobrov met with reporters at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard after the Canadiens had selected eight players at the NHL Draft in Buffalo, including Russian forward Gleb Pugachyov in the first round (26th overall).
It marked the third straight year the Canadiens selected a Russian player with their first pick at the draft, after picking Ivan Demidov fifth overall in 2024 and Alexander Zharovsky 34th overall in 2025. The Canadiens traded up from No. 41 to No. 34 to get Zharovsky and from No. 28 to No. 26 to get Pugachyov.
The fact Bobrov is Russian and still has strong hockey connections in that country — including his father, who is a scout for the St. Petersburg club — is a big reason for that. It’s also a big reason why the Canadiens decided to take a pass on Matvei Michkov at the 2023 NHL Draft, selecting defenceman David Reinbacher instead with the No. 5 overall pick while the Russian forward went to the Philadelphia Flyers at No. 7. Michkov showed up at training camp last September overweight and ended up being made a healthy scratch for two playoff games by Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet.
“The Flyers’ biggest challenge with Michkov, and something that has been mentioned to me by multiple team sources, is getting him to understand that the logo comes first and individual achievements are secondary,” wrote Kevin Kurz, who covers the Flyers for The Athletic.
Bobrov said the Canadiens started following Pugachyov closely during the 2025 MHL junior playoffs in Russia when he had 5-6-11 totals in 14 games. Bobrov watched Pugachyov in person — along with Vincent Riendeau, a goalie/pro Russia scout with the Canadiens — last November in St. Petersburg at the Future Cup, where Pugachyov was captain of the Russian U18 team. The tournament also included the Russian U20 team and U20 teams from Belarus and Kazakhstan.
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“We were the only two people there, so it was kind of a luxury to be there,” Bobrov said about watching Pugachyov play at the Future Cup. “I kind of throw Vinnie under the bus here, but first shift we saw him, he says: ‘This is our guy.’ He set the tone, beelined at a guy, almost put him in the 10th row and then just did it over and over and over again. He was hard to miss as a team captain. He was playing against older kids, setting the tone all the time.”
Bobrov saw Pugachyov again the weekend before this year’s draft at his agent Dan Milstein’s Gold Star camp in Miami, where he was measured at 6-foot-2 3/4 and 224 pounds. Pugachyov was listed at 6-foot-3 and 198 pounds by NHL Central Scouting, which had him ranked No. 9 among international skaters.
Pugachyov still has two years left on his KHL contract, but said in a Zoom interview Saturday that he hopes to attend the Canadiens’ development camp, which will run Tuesday through Thursday in Brossard. Pugachyov added he expects to be playing regularly in the NHL in two years.
Martin Lapointe, the Canadiens’ director of player personnel and amateur scouting, called Pugachyov a “unicorn,” noting that the elements of his game are rare for someone his age when it comes to blocking shots, back-checking hard, finishing checks on the forecheck and bringing pucks to the net.
When president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton was hired in November 2021 to start a rebuilding process, he said he wanted to “modernize” the Canadiens when it came to scouting, developing and analytics. Three months later, Bobrov was hired by the Canadiens after having worked with Gorton when he was GM of the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.
The 50-year-old Bobrov has helped modernize the Canadiens, but he still appreciates old-school hockey, and that’s a big reason why he wanted Pugachyov.
“Those of us with kids playing minor hockey kind of see it,” Bobrov said. “We all see what’s happening. The game is all about skill camps and doing Michigans. So all these kids can do all these tricks at 10, 11, 12 and nobody wants to do the heavy lifting anymore.
“So the way minor hockey is going, it’s becoming more and more rare to see players like (Pugachyov) and not just in North America, but everywhere else,” Bobrov added. “So when we see something that looks completely different from 99 per cent of the hockey world at every level — going all the way down to minor — we get excited. It doesn’t happen that often anymore. It used to happen more often and with each, I guess, cycle — whether it’s five years or a decade — it’s dwindling and those guys are hard to get.”
The Canadiens are hoping they have got one of those guys thanks to the most interesting man in the organization.