It’s been a busy year for Montreal Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov. He started the 2024-25 season in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg (the season opened on September 3) and, after being eliminated from the Gagarin Cup playoffs, he crossed the Atlantic to join the Habs. He skated in two regular-season games with the Sainte-Flanelle before featuring in their five playoff games. After being eliminated on April 30, he took off for the Dominican Republic with his significant other, but he’s already back to work.
On Monday morning, Instagram user riendeaustephanie4 posted a video of the 19-year-old working with Adam Nicholas on the ice of the CN Sports Complex in Brossard. Nicholas is the Canadiens’ Director of Hockey Development and a well-known individual skills coach. According to the Habs’ website, he specializes in skating techniques, but they looked to be working on shot release during Monday’s session (see video below).
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It's interesting to see that even though Demidov has had a long year, with his preseason starting in August, he didn’t afford much rest before returning to business. Montreal has seen its fair share of dedicated players over the years, but most recently, Lane Hutson comes to mind as the one who didn’t enjoy days off. The rookie blueliner once said his day off without hockey was “pretty boring” and attended all optional skates until he was explicitly told not to attend. Perhaps Demidov will have the same kind of work ethic.
It will be interesting to see if the rookie spends the whole offseason in town rather than returning to Russia. If he does, I’m guessing there will be a lot of curious fans dropping by Brossard in the coming weeks.
As previously mentioned, he could also join the Living Sisu three-on-three league this Summer; we’ll be keeping an eye out for the roster announcements. The league started play on July 9th last summer. It was co-founded by Olivier Gervais, Zach Fucale, and Alex Atsaidis and operates at Hockey Etcetera rink in Montréal.
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