I was surprised Saturday afternoon when I ran into Nick Bobrov in the lobby of the Marriott Château Champlain Hotel and had a chance to briefly say hello after parking my car ahead of that night’s game between the Canadiens and New York Rangers at the Bell Centre.
Bobrov, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur scouting, is normally travelling the world looking for the team’s stars of the future. On Saturday night, he had a chance to watch some of the players he had previously scouted play for the Canadiens in a 4-3 loss.
Wherever Bobrov was on Wednesday night he must have had a huge smile on his face while watching the Canadiens beat the Flames 2-1 in overtime in Calgary — either live on TV or through highlights.
Ivan Demidov, who Bobrov spent a lot of time scouting in Russia, showed why he could become a superstar in the NHL with a spectacular play to set up Mike Matheson for the winning goal. Demidov took a pass from Alex Newhook just inside the offensive zone, cut to the middle of the ice and then started skating backwards with the puck, holding on to it patiently while Matheson found open space and went to the net with his stick on the ice. Demidov made a perfect pass and Matheson scored as the Canadiens improved their record to 6-2-0.
The Canadiens, who play the Oilers Thursday in Edmonton (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS), were sitting in first place in the Atlantic Division after the win over the Flames, two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings (5-2-0). Demidov had 1-5-6 totals in eight games.
Demidov is only 19 and had played a grand total of 15 games in the NHL before facing the Oilers, including five in the playoffs last season. He had 2-8-10 totals in those 15 games and the future is looking very bright for the Russian teenager and the Canadiens.
Demidov was the pre-season favourite to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie after the Canadiens’ Lane Hutson won the award last season.
Martin Lapointe, the Canadiens’ director of player personnel and amateur scouting, called Demidov the “steal of the draft” after he was selected with the fifth overall pick last year. The Canadiens were hoping Demidov would fall to No. 5 because they knew exactly what they were going to get thanks to Bobrov and the homework he did on the player.
Bobrov’s father is a scout for the St. Petersburg KHL team Demidov played for last season when he posted 19-30-49 totals in 65 games, setting a league record for most points by a teenager. Bobrov, who is Russian, spent time with Demidov and his family last season.
“We’ve known Ivan for a number of years now because of my dad’s position and knowing young players in that organization is a big part of his job,” Bobrov said after the Canadiens drafted Demidov. “So we knew the kid, the family really well. I was fortunate enough to get there a couple of times and spend time with him and his family and we felt that we might have a chance at him, but not a significant one. It worked out.
“Clearly he was very happy to end up in Montreal,” Bobrov added. “His family was looking forward to that and part of the reason he wanted to be in Montreal is because he loves pressure and he embraces pressure and thrives on it. Sometimes we ask kids whether or not they’ll be OK playing in the city, but he was begging for it. So that’s a good sign.”
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis has been breaking Demidov in slowly this season, playing him on the second line with fellow rookie Oliver Kapanen and Newhook. St. Louis also has Demidov on the second power-play unit, which has a lot of Canadiens fans shaking their heads.
I’m shaking mine also since Demidov would be a much better fit along the right boards than Juraj Slafkovsky, who is in that spot now on the first power play. It’s much more of a playmaker’s spot — Slafkovsky is better suited in front of the net — and Demidov is definitely a playmaker.
“I can score, but I think I’m more of a playmaker than a scorer,” Demidov said at last year’s draft.
Heading into Thursday night’s game the Canadiens ranked 19th in the NHL on the power play with a 19.2 per cent success rate. They finished last season ranked 21st at 20.1 per cent.
This is a similar situation to last season when Hutson was on the second power-play unit until early December — more than a quarter of the way through the season — before St. Louis finally moved him to the first power-play unit, taking Matheson’s spot.
I asked St. Louis before the Canadiens left on this four-game road trip if he had a similar plan for Demidov.
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “You kind of let the behaviour talk to you. So I don’t have a set thing, timeline or whatever. If it happens, it happens organically.”
It should happen sooner than later.
This Russian kid is showing he’s a very special talent — something Nick Bobrov already knew.
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