Montreal Canadiens' prospect Ivan Demidov made Tuesday when he notched an assist in SKA St. Petersburg's defeat.
We've written about this a few times already, it wasn't a question of knowing if Montreal Canadiens' prospect Ivan Demidov would break Minnesota Wild's star Kirill Kaprizov's record, it was a question of knowing when.
He probably would have preferred breaking the record of the most points for a player under 20 years old in the KHL in a winning cause, but it happened as SKA St. Petersburg lost the game 8-3 to AK Bars.
It was a tough day at the office for Roman Rotenberg's men, by the end of the first frame, they were already trailing 6-1 and never looked like they were going to get back in the game.
Still, 41 minutes into the game, Demidov registered a primary assist on Zahkar Bardakov's goal when he tipped a shot from the blueline and Bardakov was able to convert on the rebound.
The right winger now has 43 points in 51 games, and with 16 games remaining to SKA's regular season calendar, he'll have ample time to collect more points. He can now set his sight on the most points for a player under 23 years old, a record established by Alexander Nikishin in 2022-23 when he put up 55 points playing with SKA.
Nikishin is Demidov's teammate and will get a front row seat if the youngster does manage to break his record. He needs 13 points in 16 games to do so, an objective that is not unrealistic if he keeps having the kind of ice time he's had of late. In today's game, he skated for 20:27.
With the loss, SKA now finds itself in second place of the Western division with 68 points, but 12 points behind divisional leaders Lokomotiv who have 80 points. The first eight teams in the division qualify for the playoffs, and right now, Torpedo holds the last playoffs spot with 56 points. The Kunlun Red Stars is in ninth place and only has 49 points, making it rather unlikely that SKA could miss the playoffs.
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