What will Ivan Demidov do for an encore in his sophomore season?
The Montreal Canadiens may not have had consecutive Calder Trophy winners, but that doesn’t mean that Ivan Demidov’s rookie season was disappointing; far from it. The Russian wonder put up 62 points in 82 regular-season games before adding nine points in 19 games in the playoffs.
Had it not been for the New York Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer, the rookie of the year award would have been his, but it was an impressive rookie season nonetheless. What will Demidov do for an encore? That remains to be seen. In a recent article, THN’s Michael Traikos had him as one of his top breakout candidates for the upcoming season. While I fully expect Demidov to improve on his rookie season, I’m not entirely certain that it will be a breakout year for him.
As things stand, there’s a strong possibility that he could keep on skating alongside Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook on the second line. While they’ve produced good results last year, I don’t think they are the players who will be able to fully unlock the Russian’s potential.
Had GM Kent Hughes been able to go out and acquire a proven top-six player, like, say, for instance, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Kirill Marchenko, a breakthrough would have been more likely. Demidov is great at elevating players around him, but there’s no one on his line right now who does that same for him. Still, I fully expect that organic growth alone will do him a world of good, and now that he has some playoff experience as well, he will have picked up some valuable lessons and the intensity and the physicality of the game in the postseason, something he’ll be able to take forward and which will only make him better.
The Canadiens have put such a good training staff in place, and it has worked wonders with their other youngsters, even if the results didn’t happen overnight. Demidov will be a member of the Habs for a good long while, and the Canadiens don’t typically rush their youngsters; if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
If everything goes according to plan, when prospect Michael Hage graduates and shows he can make it on the top six, he’ll likely be able to elevate Demidov; he’s done it with the other players that have crossed his path in the NCAA, and he’s certainly not about to stop doing it.
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