Despite the Montreal Canadiens’ best efforts to ensure that Ivan Demidov’s arrival at the Toronto Pearson airport went unnoticed, his flight details were revealed in an RG.org article yesterday, and the youngster got a welcome committee, aside from assistant GM John Sedgwick. 

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BPM Sports and Sick Podcast host Tony Marinaro had a live stream of the youngster’s arrival at the airport on his X account, and when Demidov arrived, 480,000 people were watching the live feed according to Marinaro himself.

To say that the Montreal Canadiens fans are excited would be an understatement. Last night, on the Sick Podcast, Marinaro reported a conversation with former Canadiens' prospect, Zach Fucale, who now plies his trade with Chelyabinsk Traktor in the KHL. The goaltender who used to play with Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Moosehead told the radio host that Demidov’s most impressive quality is his creativity on the ice; he makes plays no one else would think of making.

This is why, before the draft, I wrote that Demidov was a player made for the Martin St-Louis system/concepts. This season, the Canadiens have already seen a player who makes excellent reads in Lane Hutson. The young defenders can sometimes be unpredictable in the offensive zone, which is how he creates space for himself. When I spoke to Jayden Struble, he told me he’s not surprised anymore when the youngster makes a special play, but he’s still impressed.

St-Louis has repeatedly said this season that he has to be careful not to “overcoach” players with that kind of talent because their creativity is what makes them special and effective. The way St-Louis understands the game is why he’ll be the perfect coach for a player of Demidov’s talent. He won’t stifle his creativity with a strict system, just like Hutson, Demidov will be given leeway to learn to acclimate to the NHL style of play. He won’t be benched every time he makes a mistake because the Canadiens coach knows that, in the long run, those mistakes will all be worth it.

Demidov is now expected to rest in Toronto on Friday and he’ll be meeting his new teammates either when they arrived at their hotel late on Friday night or early Saturday morning. If there is a morning skate on Saturday (there's one scheduled but it's often cancelled when they play a back-to-back), it will be interesting to see who he skates alongside with.

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