After being named to rookie of the month in the KHL for September, Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov is having a tough time in October, hardly getting any ice time.

When the Montreal Canadiens drafted Ivan Demidov with the fifth overall pick at the last draft, Habs fans let out a unanimous cheer—finally, a pick used on a top offensive prospect. Three and a half months later, Demidov plays in the KHL and had a great first month, but things have gone south lately. 

After being named the KHL rookie of the month in September, Demidov has seen his ice time dwindle to the point where it's almost inexistent. He went from being former NHL great Evgeny Kuznetsov's regular linemate to dropping to the fourth line and then being used as the 13th forward. 

As fans complained on social media, even Russian media started asking SKA St.Petersbugh Roman Rotenburg about the youngster's deployment. A week ago, he blamed the chatter on "American agents":

I know that in Canada they write all sorts of articles at the instigation of American agents. It happens when agents in the US and even Russia pay journalists, and they write articles that some hockey player should play. It can be worse: agents call clubs where they have "their own" coaches, the agent tells them to put the player on the roster under threat of dismissal. It is important that agents do not pay journalists for articles, and that there be an objective analysis of the the game.

Pressed again about his usage of the right winger, Rotenberg gave yet another quality answer:

You talk about playing time, about icetime — apparently, you were educated in America. But you need to look objectively at all the qualities of a hockey player. Even if he played one shift and scored the winning goal. I watched the World Junior Championship, one player of the US national team sat for the whole match, and then went on one shift and scored the winning goal. It means that the head coach has prepared him well for one shift. There are such examples in football, too. Do you remember such a player as Schulskjaer (we are talking about Solskjaer - approx.) from Norway? It was called Golden substitute. Do you know what it is?

The flaw in his logic there is incredibly obvious. The rosters at the World Junior Championships are essentially all-star teams bursting with talent. The coaches have an embarrassment of riches on their hands, which is not Rotenberg's case. If it was, his team should be dominating the standings but it is not, it's in third place. Stuck on eight points since the end of February, Demidov has been eighth in scoring on the team, with the leader having 14 points, but nobody above him has less than 14:43 in average ice time. 

Furthermore, he mentions former Manchester United wonder sub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was a wonder sub for the storied football club. Of his 126 goals, only 28 came when he acted as a sub. The footballer joined the Red Devils when he was just 23 years old, and at first, he wasn't a substitute. He was young and full of energy. He was known as the "baby-faced assassin" before he was called a golden substitute. 

Demidov is just 18 years old, but he is in prime development years. The KHL is not a two-week tournament during which talented players have to take a backseat; it's a long season that offers plenty of opportunities for development. 

Today, SKA is playing against Neftekhimik, and for the first time in quite some time, Demidov is slotted to play on the third line alongside Kuznetsov. Perhaps the incessant questioning of Rotenberg's tactics has finally allowed him to see the light, or maybe it has nothing to do with it. Still, his answers to the various questions were just getting ridiculous. 

Hopefully, he will perform very well today and make Rotenberg realise the error of his ways. While it's true that developing the right winger won't benefit SKA much in the long term since Demidov has made it clear he plans to come to America sooner rather than later, not using him to his full potential certainly isn't in the team's best interest. 

Four minutes into today's game, Demidov gave SKA a 1-0 lead...interesting development. 

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