Ivan Demidov reached the 20-career-point mark in the Montreal Canadiens' win over the Utah Mammoth, and he tied Guy Lafleur as the fifth fastest rookie to do it with the Habs in the post-expansion era.
When rookie Ivan Demidov scored the game-winning goal against the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday night, he reached the 20 career-point mark. He tied Guy Lafleur as the fifth fastest rookie to do so with the Montreal Canadiens in the post-expansion era.
He only trails Stephane Richer (20 games played), Kjell Dahlin (20 GP), Mats Naslund (21 GP) and Craig Laughlin (22 GP). With his goal, the youngster also took back the lead in the rookie scoring race with 18 points (five goals and 13 assists), one point ahead of Beckett Sennecke and Matthew Schaefer. The young Russian has a game in hand on the former and two on the latter.
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While leading the rookie scoring race is impressive, Demidov will need to separate himself more than that if he wants to win the Calder Trophy and succeed to Lane Hutson as the rookie of the year.
The points are only part of the equation when it comes to winning the rookie title, and the player's role on the team is a significantly more important factor. As things stand, Demidov is no longer on the top power play unit and only averages 14:26 of time on ice with an unsustainable shooting percentage of 20%.
Meanwhile, Sennecke is on the Anaheim Ducks’ first line and first power-play unit, averaging 16:47 on the ice and shooting at 17.5%. As for blueliner Schaefer, he’s on the New York Islanders’ first pairing, first power play unit and first penalty kill. He averages 23:06 on the ice, has a 9.9 shooting percentage on the back of taking 71 shots on net (Demidov only has 25 while Sennecke has taken 40). The rearguard is on pace for 55 points on the season, 11 less than Hutson in his Calder-winning season.
With 60 games left in the season, the Habs rookie has got plenty of time to improve his numbers, get back on the top power play unit and improve his ice time, but for now, he’s not ahead in the Calder race.
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