The Rumblings Were True. Ivan Demidov Is Downright Disgusting
Minas Panagiotakis. Getty Images.History will look back on the 2023 and 2024 NHL Drafts and see which NHL GMs were the biggest dipshits to ever enter the realm of professional sports. With geopolitical tensions at an all-time high between North America and Russia, certain NHL teams made the decision to steer clear of drafting massively skilled Russian forwards with high draft picks because they feared those players would be stuck playing in the KHL for years to come.
Matvei Michkov was, at worst, considered a 1B option to Connor Bedard in the 2023 NHL Draft. Yet 5 teams passed him over and allowed him to drop to 7th overall. After playing just one more season in the KHL, Michkov got out of his contract early to come over to North America in the 2024-25 season. He was the best player in the league this year from that draft.
The Montreal Canadiens were one of those teams who weren't willing to take a risk on drafting Michkov in 2023. They passed on him at 5th overall. But after another dog shit season in Montreal--and another 5th overall pick coming up in 2024--they didn't make the same mistake twice. The Blackhawks drafted Artyom Levshunov 2nd overall instead of drafting Demidov to pair with Bedard. The Anaheim Ducks drafted some kid named Beckett Sennecke 3rd overall instead of Demidov. The Columbus Blue Jackets thought Cayden Lindstrom would be a safer pick at 4th overall. That left Ivan Demidov open for the Montreal Canadiens to right their wrong of passing up Michkov in the previous draft.
Seems like it was a good idea.
Ivan Demidov had just got off a plane from Russia. He got out of his KHL contract a couple months early so he could join the Habs for their playoff push. He flew into Montreal on Friday, and made his NHL debut last night. Just over 5 minutes into his first NHL game, he was already on the scoresheet with this primary assist.
The handle at the blueline. The vision and hands down in tight around the goalline. Ivan Demidov will have a couple hundred assists that look just like that throughout his NHL career. And he'll probably have a hundred goals that look just like this one.
Sets up the first goal of the game, and then scores his first career goal all in just the 1st period of his NHL debut. Wayne Gretzky played 1487 career games. That means he played 4461 career periods. Ivan Demidov was on pace here to score 2 goals per period, so that would have him on a trajectory for 8922 career points if he plays as long as Gretzky did. Not bad.
Unfortunately, he couldn't keep that pace up the rest of the night. So Gretzky's points record might be safe for the time being. But he showed more flashes throughout the night that should make teams like Chicago, Anaheim and Columbus kick themselves repeatedly in the balls for the rest of his career.
Makes you wonder why Montreal wouldn't put him out there for the shootout. I know Caufield, Laine, and Suzuki is a pretty dangerous lineup. But those guys go 0/3, Chicago wins in the shootout, and now the Habs still need to pick up another point in the standings to clinch their playoff spot. They could have been living easy this morning if they just sent Demidov out there to put a dagger in the Hawks in the shootout.