There was some confusion among Montreal Canadiens fans on Thursday when the KHL awards banquet took place. First, news emerged that Ivan Demidov had lost the Rookie of the Year title in the Russian league to Yegor Surin. However, according to RG.org, Marco D’Amico, the KHL considered giving the award to Surin because Demidov wasn’t attending; however, once the news leaked, they changed their mind.
In the end, the Canadiens rookie was named the Rookie of the Year thanks to registering 49 points in 65 games, setting a new record for a player aged under 20 years old, the previous marked had been set by the Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov who had scored 42 points in 49 games during the 2016-17 season.
The 19-year-old edged out goaltender Semyon Vyazovoi, a sixth-round pick of the Seattle Kraken in 2021, and Nashville Predators first-round pick Surin for the award. The former played nine games in his rookie season and finished the year with a 4-4-0 record with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. As for the latter, he scored 14 points in 41 games while playing for league champions Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.
Given Demidov’s dominant performance, the KHL would have looked bad had they gone ahead with the decision not to give the award to him. Meanwhile, a former Canadiens player was also named to the 2024-25 KHL season All-Star Team: Alexander Radulov. While he only played a single season in Montreal, Radulov quickly became a fan favourite, and Marc Bergevin’s failure to sign him to a new contract is one of the blemishes on the former GM’s jacket.
Returning to Demidov, it will be interesting to see if he can add the NHL Rookie of the Year title to his resume after the 2025-26 season. As things stand, it appears that Lane Hutson will be awarded the trophy for this past season, marking the first time a Montreal player has won it since Ken Dryden in 1972.
Photo Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
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