RG.org's Marco D'Amico published an article today [https://rg.org/news/hockey/khl-insider-montreal-cannot-persuade-ska-to-let-demidov-earlier] that Montreal Canadiens' fans will not like, but that isn't all that surprising. In his latest piece D'Amico explains there is no easy way for fifth overall pick Ivan Demidov to head over to North America before the end of his contract. There are still plenty of unanswered questions about Kirby Dach, but the most pressing in this rebuild is whether he is a center. In fact, there is a way, but the likelihood of it happening is slim to none. After RG reached out to the KHL to get clarity on the matter and they were told: The current agreement between the KHL club and the hockey player may be terminated by mutual agreement at any time,” said a representative of the KHL about the regulations surrounding mutual contract termination. “According to Article 33 of the KHL Legal Regulations, in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the contract may be terminated by mutual agreement with or without payment of severance pay or monetary compensation. In other words, if the contract was mutually terminated, Demidov would be free as a bird to joint the Canadiens, but there has been no indication from SKA St. Petersburg the club had any inclination to let the prospect go. Quite to the contrary, there have been reports about the youngster refusing to sign an extension, and more than once. D'Amico also adds that contrarily to popular belief, the Canadiens couldn't just swoop in there a throw money at SKA to buy Demidov out of his contract. About a month ago, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reported Canadiens' staff including Kent Hughes were heading to Russia [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-staff-are-headed-to-russia] to check in on Demidov and reading D'Amico's latest article, that's all it was, checking in on him. This is real life and not Rejean Tremblay's hockey soap Lance et Compte, Hughes is not Gilles Guilbault and Demidov is not Sergei Koulikov. To put it bluntly, Montreal and its fans will need to be patient, contractually the young Russian is tied to SKA until May, 31. This makes perfect sense since as we previously reported in early September, the KHL playoffs could finish as late as May, 25 [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-a-demidov-update]. According to the NHL Media site, the latest the Stanley Cup could be awarded this season is June, 23 and, judging by how events have unfolded this season, the Canadiens' season is highly likely to be over well before then. For this season, the Montreal faithful will have to make do with the Demidov highlights they can find on X or elsewhere online when SKA plays. All good things come to those who wait and until then, they can keep a close eye on Lane Hutson's development and, sooner rather than later, Patrik Laine should be making his Canadiens debut. After all, this morning he took part in the team's practice for the first time since suffering a knee injury in late September. There is no timetable for his return just yet, but he has been skating since November, 6 and certainly appears to be progressing well. Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains] Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/] for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens
