RIGHT NOW Ivan Demidov Is The BEST Of The 2026 NHL Rookies | Montreal Canadiens

RIGHT NOW Ivan Demidov Is The BEST Of The 2026 NHL Rookies | Montreal Canadiens

forget what I was gonna say. I had something brilliant to open the show with today. Mark, that’s a great way to start the show. I know. Uh Marco, what’s good, brother? Good to see your friendly face as uh as always. You know, people, you know, you get stopped regularly. You get stopped online. I get stopped online. I get stopped at the golf club on the regular. And um it’s one of the best compliments that I think you can pay to me if you ever see me in person and you like the YouTube show that Marco and I do. People ask me and it happened today. Man, you and Marco have been friends for years. I met Marco I’ve met Marco Demo in person once in my lifetime. That’s I mean I’ve seen him in the press box, whatever, but like in studio we did four hours of live radio together and that was about it, right? And uh it’s a great it’s a great compliment because you know the the the chemistry I suppose how we uh riff off each other. Um it is it is it means what we’re doing Marco it’s it’s it’s kind of working. Look I’ve gotten Marco to sit down. Look at him. He’s sitting down. It’s amazing. I love it. I’m literally standing. You were bent over. You were bent. It looked like you were sitting because you’re short. You know being it’s Yeah. It’s like being on a because my desk can lift. Um, so could I sometimes, but it depends. I know. I know. I know. But my desk can my desk can go up a little bit. So, it’s like I’m leaning on a on a bench on a on a bar bench. So, this is the way I like to talk to people. Um, we actually did five shows together in the summer of 2022. Uh, or sorry, 2023. I apologize. We worked a whole together. Connor was on vacation. Yeah. Uh, it was the week before you were going to go on vacation. And then John Still and I ended up doing the next week while you were gone. So yeah, when he says he’s only done five hours of radio, um I I take offense to that. I actually I actually remember. So I don’t Best time of my career. It was the best time of my career. I’ll never forget it. That’s Marggo. Hello everybody. I am uh Sean Star with two Rs and it is my birth name. It truly it really is. Sean Aaron Star is my full My wife asked me the same question. You know, bro, the questions I get asked the most often being in radio for as long as I’ve been in radio, is that your real name? What time do you get up? What time do you go to bed? Those are the three questions that I get I’ve get all the time in over 20 years of doing this, right? And uh so the answer is around 3:30 in the morning uh after Habs games on the East Coast during the week. And um and Sean Aaron Star is my real name. It really is. It’s on my birth certificate. That is my real name. Aaron with a AON, by the way. Okay, we’ve wasted enough time. Three minutes of Jibberjabber. Uh, thank you for liking. Thanks for being a loyal viewer, subscriber if you’re listening on our audio podcasts. Uh, thanks for the download. We’re available on I don’t know what’s better here, Sean. The fact that your initials are SAS or the fact that Aon is your middle name? A Aon, baby. A Aon. Oh my. So much content is going to come from this, guys. You have no idea. It’s great, right? It’s great. So, thank you everybody. Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcast, all your favorites. Uh, wherever you get your podcast is where you can find us. Lane Hudson won the Calder last season as rookie of the year. The question is, will his Montreal Canadian teammate Ivon Deidovv follow this season? Now, if you’re interested in putting a few bucks down, the odds are in their favor. Deidov, the fifth overall pick from the draft, showed us what he can kind of do. We got a real good glimpse of this. So, Marco, let’s talk about the race for the 2026 NHL Rookie of the Year. Where do you kind of slot Ivon Deidov in that race as we talk in late July? Yeah. Uh I don’t want to be uh I don’t want to be perceived as showing bias here, but I definitely have him at the top of my list uh simply just because of what we saw and what we saw could be his potential utilization down the stretch. um you know five on five seeing him start on the second line I think is understandable but you know if we have it the way we have it and the way we’re going to talk about it you know later on this week uh if he plays on that top power play wave anybody who plays on that top power play wave benefits quite extensively from playing with Nick Suzuki Cole Cfield and Lane Hudson. So I think that that could be a big deal. I think the only player I’ve ever seen play on that top unit that hasn’t really seen a a spike in their points on the power play is your iceki. Yeah, which is another another episode another day. So, I think a guy like Ivan Deidov, especially if they play that diamond formation, I think that, you know, he’s going to be able to pile in the points because that’s exactly his bread and butter as he kind of figures out, you know, more of it because he already did figure it out quite well before the end of the playoffs. But that that timing, the pacing, the space, gap control in the offensive zone, gap control in the defensive zone, transition, etc. All that and then kind of moving forward with it. So, I believe he would be the favorite in that regard because if you look down the rest of the of the list, well, outside of maybe one or two guys, most of them are going to be playing sheltered minutes. Uh, right? So, you wouldn’t necessarily they’re not going to get the prime utilization that a guy like Deidov would get. But it’s also worth understanding like you talked about him being a fifth overall pick. He was a fifth overall pick in the same way that Matt Vichkov was a seventh overall pick of situation. You know, talentwise, we’re talking about two guys that arguably could have gone number two. Yeah. And in Demid’s case, probably should have gone number two. Um, but you know, sorry Chicago fans, but when you look at I I could hear the prospect Dawn crying from like Chicago. Uh, so you could basically you could basically pencil him in as a favorite. Absolutely. I think when we did this exercise last year with Lane Hudson, I kind of felt comfortable and saying that he was going to be one of the finalists for sure. I don’t think anybody could have predicted an historic season. But when it comes to Demidov, if he stays healthy and the utilization is there and he continues to work as hard as he seemingly has this summer, uh, I’m very excited to see what happens because when you think of Demidov, he did not train last summer. He had an ankle injury last summer. So, he didn’t actually get that lower body reps. He didn’t get on the ice in a regular setting until they got to the KHL preseason, which is, I believe, in late July, early August. Yeah. So, you have a full summer. Like, he didn’t go back to Russia. He took like one week to go down south, came back, and has been on the ice ever since. In fact, the Canadians are learning a little bit of what Roman Rottenberg was talking about when he used to say, “That guy spends too much time training. like we need to get we need to lock they had to lock the doors to the gym so that he wouldn’t go in a second time. So, I mean it’s great to see a bunch of the guys in Montreal skating. Marco put it out on Twitter. Nick Suzuki’s getting married. A lot of his boys are here and I’ll tell you uh seeing last week Patrick Line I I’m a big buyer when veterans are here doing extra lifting, bro. They’re veterans that have been long in the tooth in the NHL. They’re here in July, late July, skating, practicing, line rush. We talked about this. We talked about this with L, right? Like contract year. Also didn’t get to train on the ice last year because he was in the program, had an injury. So, oh, I guess he cares after all. I guess he does care. Yeah. To those that thought that he didn’t. Come on now. Yeah. I mean, listen, you know, it’s I don’t I don’t really want to get into this because I don’t I don’t want to fuel that kind of uh that kind of talk. If people were have their doubts about line, that’s totally fine. But I think, you know, we also need to establish like that he was not set up to be necessarily successful and still managed to get 20 goals last year. So, his decisions, yeah, it’s a contract year. Um, he’ll he’ll put in the time and I think we’ll have lots of time to discuss him uh in future episodes as we get closer to camp, but he’s definitely putting in the work. So a guy like W just I think is getting pushed by the same kind of infectious love for hockey that you see some of these younger guys have. Deidov is right at the top of that list. So let’s continue with the with the rookies, right? Let’s continue with uh Ivon Deidovv trying to win the Calder for the Montreal Canadians in back-to-back seasons off Lane Hudson’s historic season last year that got him individual honors, right? So, like we know some of the bigger names. I’m going to throw two names at Marco to get his point of view. Like, how deep is this race going to go? Isaac Howard, the 2025 Hobie Baker Award winner, right? Remember, he got traded from Tampa Bay. He scored 26 goals, 52 points in 37 NCAA games, top six role with the highscoring Oilers, maybe. And what about Eastston Ken Marco of the Toronto Maple Leafs? back-to-back OHL titles, playoff MVP, Memorial Cup, 28th overall pick, turning pro. How deep is the is the rookie class with these two names to go with some of the bigger, more well-known names in 2026? Yeah. So, I Isaac Howard prefers to go by Ike Howard now. So, all the stat lines have been changed to Ike Howard. See, look at this info. I love this info. It’s gonna take time to get used to, but yes. Uh, yeah. To me, Howard is probably the player given his situation that could put up that could probably rival Denidov in terms of points. My two I think you are very big on him. Yeah. Well, it’s not that I’m necessarily big on him um per se. I think he’s going to be a fine top six player, but uh Conor McDavid has a knack for making uh you know, top six players look like superstars. Yeah. You know, and I’m not and I’m not saying that, you know, some of the guys that he’s played with in the past uh necessarily don’t deserve the accolades they’ve gotten over the years. I mean, I think you can you can definitely name a couple over the last little bit, but when you put a guy like Howard, I personally doubt he’ll start with a guy like McDavid, right? Because they’re obviously going to try to Yeah. mess the lines up a little bit, but like look at the rub that McDavid had on a guy like Zack Heyman, right? A guy that can follow the complete plays. He has the speed. He has the intelligence, right? So, it’s just a question of can he follow? And how much money does Ike Howard’s dad have? Zack Heyman joke. Not no please not again. Um, so when you look at a guy like Howard, just being just being able to play next to McDavid is a big deal. you know, the fact that they traded uh Evander Kane, the fact that Corey Perry is no longer there, the fact that they also traded Victor Arbitson, it’s going to give the opportunity for some of these younger guys, Matt Seavoy, uh you know, obviously Howard in this case to get higher up in the lineup. Jeff Skinner’s obviously gone as well. So like there are guys that are going to move up. Put Kohl’s in the same concept. So, my two cents is he’ll probably get top six minutes by some point in the year. I don’t know that he’ll start the season that way and that may be what hurts him. Well, let’s see. You know, it’s all about it’s all about earning, right? Nothing’s given, especially for these young Bucks. Earning your way up and we talked about that last week on this show about, you know, Zachary Buluk trying to earn his way and work his way up Martine St. Louis roster. But, you know, here’s another name that we saw in the playoffs, right? Let’s talk about Ryan Leonard for a second. We’re talking about the eighth overall pick from 2023. He turned pro, played a sophomore season at BC, scored once in nine regular season games once he became a Washington Capital, and then had one assist in eight playoff games. And I wonder, you know, we talk about earning your way up. It looks like he’s probably going to be a third line player. I don’t know uh you know the opportunities that will arise for a guy like Ryan Leonard, but how do you see him being a threat in terms of making this rookie class that much deeper on a good team and he’s a good hardworking player? Yeah, I think I think Ryan Leonard is an allworld talent. Um one of my favorite players from the 2023 draft. Just loved watching him at BC and Jacob Fowler had nothing but good things to say about him, so I’ll believe him. But when you look at the way that Leonard played, he was used in kind of a secondary role in the playoffs and I think he was even scratched uh in the second round to a degree or you know I guess left on the bench or shorten the bench. It’s understandable. I mean when you look at the when you look at the top six in Washington you have Ovetkin, Dylan Stro, Alexi Proas, Conor Mcichael, Pier Dubois, Tom Wilson, right? That’s a pretty locked in top six. Who’s leaving? Exactly. So, the only way that Ryan Leonard is going to get more ice time in my honest opinion is if a someone grossly underperforms next season in that top six or gets injured. Those would be the only ways that he would get more ice time. He’ll still get good second line power play time. I think second wave of power play time and I think he’s going to have a phenomenal career, but just be it. It’s the fact that Washington is so deep that even though he’s a top prospect uh in the NHL, you just may not get the same opportunities that a guy like Howard or a guy like Demidov uh are going to be able to get in Montreal and Edmonton respectfully. So, I don’t necessar I think if you line them up next to each other, he’s not far off from Demidov in terms of overall impact. I think Demidov is a star player and he’s going to be, you know, I think personally I think he’s going to be better than Tom Wilson earlier in his career than Tom Wilson, but he’s just not there yet. And it’s a lot to ask when there’s a team trying to, you know, get back into the Stanley Cup playoff hunt, you know, and there are other rookies like I I I kind of want to recreate last year and put it into this upcoming season. So William, Zayn Perea, Matt Savois, Gab Gab Perau, like right. So if we went into last year thinking, oh, Lane Hudson could could make a run. Matt Vichkov was at the top of mind for a lot of people. Mlin Celibbrini in San Jose. Um those were the guys that we’re talking about. So let’s replace those three names. We know I agree with Marco Ivon Deidov. If he’s not the front runner, he’s on the podium of guys that should be talked about with a real chance at winning a Calder, right? So, let’s put him comfortably in the top three. You want to put him one that I’m I’m kosher with that. Walk me through the top three. Let’s recreate CBrini Mechov Hudson for 2026. What do you got? What do you think? Yeah, I think Zeve Bull is some is someone I’d like to spend some time on because we talk about Lane Hudson. I mean, Zeve Bull, uh, what an incredible freshman year he had on route to his draft year. Uh, you know, he’s a guy that I think is going to be leaned on heavily in Minnesota. uh probably take over the first power play wave eventually uh throughout the season. I don’t know if they’re going to give it to him right away, but definitely eventually give it to him. Uh and I think he’s a guy that’s going to, you know, really thrive playing next to uh probably a Brock Faber for many, many years to come. Um so I’d be I’d have my eye on him because, you know, again, this is a guy that when he jumped into the NCAA, hit the ground running is an understatement. So, I feel like he’s a guy that is super intelligent, can adapt really well. A little undized for NHL standards. I, you know, when you’re a six-foot defenseman, people all start worrying. I don’t think you have much to worry about with him. He’s a very adaptable young man. And Billy Garren, uh, you know, just over the moon over this player. So, I’m quite sure that he’s going to be given a lot of rope, uh, and a lot of opportunity to produce. And then we talk about Zayn Perrick. Zayn Perrick to me is the next defenseman that I feel could be a potential 70point defenseman, right? Like I think not this season, not not necessarily this season. I mean, it’s a lot to ask considering what the Calgary Flames did last year, but I think that, you know, when they’re able to bring about some of the young players that they’ve drafted and they, you know, they they they fully embrace this retool to a degree. Uh I think that Zane Perrick is going to be one of those offensive defensemen that are always going to be at kind of the top of the league. Um, and so, you know, some people may complain about his defensive work. That’s fine. Uh, I I, you know, similar discussions were made about Lane Hudson’s defense earlier in the season and he was able to improve. Um, so I feel like Perrick could eventually do that, but I I don’t know that Zayn Perrick will be given that opportunity immediately in Calgary simply because you’re going to have if he’s not traded by then, Rasmus Anderson is going to be put on full display for trade value, right? Like he’s going to get top power play, top power play usage, top top line usage. And then you also have to factor in that they have other guys on that blue line. They just signed Kevin Ball. Obviously, he doesn’t he’s not used in an offensive situation, but he’s someone that you have to keep an eye on, you know. Um, you look at their veterans as well. You have McKenzie Weaguer in that on the right side, you know. So, you have to factor in all of this kind of elements, but I feel like he will get in and I think he will get top four minutes early, earlier than some are willing to bet right now. I just don’t know that. Again, we talk about opportunity utilization and how that can translate to points. I think like Dustin Wolf, Dustin Wolf kind of came out of nowhere and really kind of built momentum. I feel like Zayn Perrick if given rope could be that kind of guy in the same way like like a Bu. So let’s we we’ve identified Demidov Deov Bu Howard um Perk Leonard. I have two more names for you. Yeah, go ahead. That I think people should watch out for because I’ll tell you I’ll tell you this thing quickly. When you talk about Ziv Buham, right? I just had to look this up to be sure. I had a feeling um the NHL’s been giving out the Calder since 1932 1933. Defenseman have won the rookie of the year in back-to-back seasons only once. 6263 Kent Douglas Toronto. The next year, Jacqu Leier in 6364. Those are the that those are the that’s the only time where a defenseman won the Calder. the next year another blue liner won it. So I mean the deck stacked against it but if a bullion goes out there and lights it up who knows who knows who knows. Uh the next two guys I got for you that really kind of stand out to me uh Alexander Nikishan who’s the former uh former uh teammate of uh Ivan Denidovv back in Scott. Uh this is a guy, another big defenseman. Yeah. But a guy that’s going to be afforded a lot of room given the fact that Orlov uh left Carolina, the fact that Brent Burns left Carolina, right? So like you have a lot of open space right now for a guy like him and they just traded away Scott Morrow. So, in terms of offensive-minded defenseman with Boom, he’s basically got free free reign to to go because you have you have Slavven, you have Gostas Bearer, and you have him. So, he’s going to be in terms of, you know, getting that top kind of usage. I think Rob Bindor is going to bring him out slowly in the first 15, 20 games, and then you’ll see where he goes. But I thought he in the games that he got in the playoffs, he did not look out of place. And that was deeper into the playoffs than most rookies get into in terms of their first NHL game. And I thought he played admirably. And I thought, you know, he brought the physicality. He wasn’t shy. Obviously, he’s an older uh he’s an older player, right? Already in his early 20s, but I think 23, if I’m not mistaken, 22 or 23 by the time this season ends next year. Um, so a guy that I think could surprise, a guy that I think if used on the top power play wave instead of Gosses Bear eventually could really be of an impact uh for for the Carolina Hurricanes. So someone to watch for because unlike Perrick and uh Bu’s less standing in front of him in terms of utilization at five on five especially that could probably hold him back from getting those points, right? I feel like he has a distinct opportunity to rise into that lineup very quickly. And then the other player uh that I’d like to mention is Jimmy Snugarude. Yes. Jimmy Snugarude and S St. Louis. They are very very high on him. That’s the only reason they entertained a trading Zachary Bullzuk and B taking calls on Jordan Kairo is because they feel like they got something in Jimmy Snuggaroo. And again, yeah, same age as Howard, same draft class as Howard. in fact, I believe picked a couple like 10 picks from each other. But, uh, Snugaroo to me is just like that he has that prototypical power forward in him. Uh, you know, I think he was extremely strong. I believe it was the University of Minnesota. He played on a line with Matthew N and Logan Culie if I’m not mistaken. And they were just absolute fire to watch on the ice. And he was good down the stretch for St. Louis once he got into the I think he had what, four points in less than 10 games. Seven games. Seven games. Yeah. So just really strong overall player. Uh not like 65 hulking power forward, but a guy who’s solid strong power forward. And I feel they’re already talking comfortably top six top six role in St. Louis like now ready. Yeah. I Yeah. Because of other guys like Jake Neighbors that haven’t taken the next step and wanting to get tougher guys into their top six because right now in terms of hard-hitting guys, they basically have Bush Nevich and Shen and that basically it right. Thomas, that’s not necessarily his game. Kyu definitely not his game. So, you know, it’s it’s that’s the kind of identity they’re trying to bring in. So, they may give this guy more opportunity than say Leonard would get in Washington. So, someone based on family names alone, uh that’s that’s a that’s an award-winning family name. I don’t I was a big Snufflepopus guy in for Sesame Street. I don’t know where you come down on Snuffelpicus, but I was I was I was big. I still like him. Still got a place. Shout out. Shout out. Shout out. And it has to be said. It has to be said these are the guys that we know are going to be playing in the NHL. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. We know these guys. Yes. So like this isn’t to be disrespectful to Matthew Schaefer or Michael Misa or Anton Frenell, right? Because those three could make their respective rosters. Do I think Matthew Schaefer Do I think Matthew Schaefer has the goods to come out of training camp after only playing 17 games last season and just rip the league a new one? I mean, you know, anything could happen with the first overall pick and go either way. Yeah, we’ll see what happens. You know, same thing with Michael Misa. Michael Misa would not get prime utilization. He’d probably be used on the second line as they as they continue the coupling of Celibbrini and Will Smith on the first line in San Jose. So yeah, again, you know, just trying to map that out. I’m just not necessarily confident that they would they would be at the top. But out of the three out of the three players, I feel like Schaefer would get a little bit of that opportunity because they traded no adoption. So he may get power play time much earlier than than he perceive. He may get more minutes much earlier than than some perceive. I just it’ll be interesting to see how it works because Romanov is ahead of him and Pelic is ahead of him in the depth chart on the left side. So, we’ll see how that’s used. But in terms of offensive defenseman, it’s Tony D’Angelo, Matthew Schaefer. Those were probably the two guys that take the first two power play waves. So, some stud defenseman in the last few rookie classes. It’s another stud class. It’s another stud class. I know. I know. Uh that’s Marco De Mo. You can follow him at MN Demo with RG Media.

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Let’s talk NHL rookie class for the 2026 season. Where does Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov slot in with the rest of the NHL rookie class? Who will be Demidov’s main competition? Let us know what you think about the upcoming NHL rookie class

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