During the Montreal Canadiens’ dressing room clear-out day, Ivan Demidov revealed that he would be training with the Habs’ second-round pick of the 2025 draft (and their first pick of that draft), his childhood friend Alexander Zharovsky. While Demidov and his significant other have been vacationing in Mexico, Zharovsky made his way to Montreal and arrived on Wednesday. On both Thursday and Friday morning, he was seen skating on the CN Sports Complex ice in Brossard and Paul Byron, who’s now a Player Development Consultant with the Canadiens, was with him on Friday morning, closely monitoring his every move. After Dans les coulisses had exclusive images of his Thursday skating session, RDS sent a crew to Brossard on Friday morning to capture more images. TVA Sports’ Nicolas Cloutier has obtained confirmation from Dan Milstein, Zharovsky’s agent, that the youngster will leave Montreal from June 20 to June 24 to attend the Gold Star pre-draft camp. He also attended last season when the Canadiens had an appointment with him [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/the-canadiens-have-an-important-date-on-saturday], a clear sign that they were hoping to select him at the draft days later. After that camp, he will come back to town and attend the Canadiens’ development camp, which he missed last year because of a visa issue. He’ll remain in Montreal until it’s time to head back to Russia in mid-July in time for Ufa’s Salavat Yualev training camp. The young Russian has one year left on his contract, which expires at the end of May 2027. Should his team miss the playoffs or be eliminated early, he could be released early, just as Demidov was by St. Petersburg’s SKA back in the spring of 2025. Until then, though, attending the Development camp in July is your best option to see what the promising winger can do. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens] on The Hockey News. Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I].
