During the first intermission of the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers game on Saturday night, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman announced that the Montreal Canadiens were readying themselves to head overseas and visit with their first-round pick from 2024 — Ivan Demidov.
The purpose of the visit is to check-in with the fifth overall pick — it’s a visit that the team had planned the moment they drafted the Russian forward. The goal of the visit is to watch Demidov play, perform and see first-hand how he’s developing. It is expected, as well, that general manager Kent Hughes will be a part of the trip and that it will take place in the coming weeks to months.
The visit also comes at a peculiar time as Demidov has seen a decrease in playing time with his KHL club — SKA St. Petersburg — as there has been some speculation that he hasn’t been willing to sign an extension with SKA. Other reports have his diminished ice time stacked up to internal competition and needing to fight for ice-time. Either way, Demidov is seeing less ice-time in what could be a pivotal year for the player as well as the Canadiens when it comes to their 2024 first-round pick.
At one point in the offseason, reports had Demidov considering himself SKA’s 13th forward as he knew it could be a rough season ahead. If the reports around the lack of an extension overseas is the reason for his demotion in ice-time, this visit should be an interesting one for Hughes and the rest of the Canadiens staff heading over to see Demidov.
As for what he’s done this season, Demidov has five goals and 10 points in 17 games so far for SKA, even with the drop in ice-time.
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