It only took a few minutes for Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov to make his mark in the NHL.<\/p>\n
After setting up a goal for speedster Alex Newhook, Demidov then proceeded to score his first career goal midway through the first period. On top of anticipating the play, Demidov used his elite hand-eye coordination to find the back of the net. All things considered, it was a dream start for the highly-touted forward.<\/p>\n
IVAN DEMIDOV, TU ES UN MAGICIEN<\/p>\n
YOU\u2019RE A MAGICIAN, IVAN DEMIDOV#GoHabsGo<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/z6HQsModRb<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) April 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Demidov\u2019s first carer game didn\u2019t just allow the Bell Centre faithful to dream about a better future in Montreal, it also aligned with many of the projections regarding his NHL potential, while also hitting on a heavy dose of confirmation bias from the fans.<\/p>\n On a completely different note, I do find the juxtaposition of reactions to be highly entertaining whenever Byron Bader produces a player card involving a Canadiens skater. Everyone quickly praises him when Demidov projects as a star, while cursing him and damning his model the moment it doesn\u2019t align with how certain fans view various Canadiens players.<\/p>\n Such is life as an NHL analyst.<\/p>\n Levshunov looks good, great even. In most years, a very reasonable 2nd overall pick but Chicago might have missed out on something special. Anaheim and Columbus as well. https:\/\/t.co\/PDg6LkDWXH<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sKRgbz4VA1<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) February 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Looking To The Future<\/p>\n Demidov stayed in Montreal this summer rather than returning to Russia, a clear sign that he\u2019s champing at the bit<\/a> to begin his rookie season in earnest. On that note, he was awarded the Rookie Of The Year award in the KHL, a testament to his play in a very frustrating situation for SKA-Saint Petersburg.<\/p>\n He is unbelievable! Ivan Demidov is 2025 KHL Rookie of the Year!<\/p>\n In his first KHL season, the 19-year-old became SKA\u2019s points leader (49 PTS, 65 GP) with just 11th TOI among forwards (13:45). #KHLAwards<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/qVrsWsjxMH<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 KHL (@khl_eng) May 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Given that Demidov has less than 30 minutes of regular-season ice time in the NHL under his belt, his underlying numbers provide limited value.<\/p>\n With that in mind, we won\u2019t be discussing underlying numbers today.<\/p>\n Okay, that\u2019s a blatant lie, and you all know it, but I promise we won\u2019t be delving as deeply into the details of the available statistics as we usually do.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll focus on his performance in the playoffs, as it does provide a slightly large sample size.<\/p>\n 61.5% \u2013 While playing with Newhook and Jake Evans, Demidov managed to control over 60 percent of the shots (24-15) at 5v5. Evans is not the long-term solution to Montreal\u2019s lack of players available to play as the team\u2019s No.2 centre, but he produced reasonable numbers alongside Demidov in the playoffs. We also have to give credit to Newhook, as Demidov\u2019s stats were solid while playing alongside him, as long as Patrik Laine was not the third member of the line.<\/p>\n 0 \u2013 Demidov was the only Canadiens skater who failed to take a shot at 5v5 in the playoffs. It\u2019s par for the course when discussing a rookie, as they tend to defer to their veteran linemates, a situation that\u2019s even more evident during springtime hockey. Take Juraj Slafkovsky, for example. He\u2019s three years into his NHL career, and he still defers to Nick Suzuki or Cole Caufield on most occasions.<\/p>\n 33% \u2013 The Canadiens enjoyed a significant uptick in powerplay efficiency, scoring five goals in 15 opportunities, the second-best result of all teams that participated in the playoffs. Their shooting percentage was sky-high, a factor we simply can\u2019t ignore, but Demidov\u2019s presence on the powerplay led to very encouraging numbers.<\/p>\n 2 \u2013 Demidov did not manage to register his name on the scoresheet at 5v5, however, he did directly set up two powerplay goals. The combination of Demidov and Lane Hutson didn\u2019t just open up shooting and passing lanes, it forced opposing teams to spread out their coverage.<\/p>\n 8 \u2013 The 19-year-old Russian delivered more hits than he absorbed (6), an interesting development seeing as the Washington Capitals clearly focused on the battle of attrition in the first round.<\/p>\n 89 \u2013 Demidov was given less than 90 shifts in the playoffs, a healthy reminder that we didn\u2019t just witness the beginning of his NHL career, but rather, the beginning of the beginning of his time in the NHL. Expect him to feature in roughly 1500 regular-season shifts in 2025-26.<\/p>\n All Ivan Demidov 5v5 statistics via Natural Stat Trick<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t