Can Lane Hutson’s rookie season give us a clue as to how Ivan Demidov will be coached?

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MONTREAL – Martin St. Louis has been reluctant to talk about the arrival of Ivan Demidov because he doesn’t know when he will arrive, and the Montreal Canadiens have bigger fish to fry right now.

They are heading to Ottawa to face the Senators on Friday night, not having clinched a playoff spot, and that playoff spot is top of mind for St. Louis, and that’s understandable. It’s also an easy out.

“I don’t know when we’re going to see him,” St. Louis said after practice Thursday, “but I think we’re going to see him.”

All indications are that St. Louis will likely see Demidov in Toronto when the Canadiens arrive there late Friday night prior to facing the Maple Leafs on Saturday. If everything goes smoothly, we can reasonably expect Demidov to make his Canadiens debut Monday night at home against the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that chose not to draft him with the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and instead took defenceman Artyom Levshunov, allowing Demidov to slide to the Canadiens at No. 5.

By that point, St. Louis will have no choice but to answer how he plans on using and coaching Demidov, but for now, we do have a case study we can work off of.

And that is Lane Hutson.

Demidov is a highly unique player, but the way he moves on the ice, the way he uses deception to create offence, the way he manipulates time and space to his advantage, a lot of it is at least reminiscent of Hutson.

And Hutson is one of Demidov’s biggest fans.

They met at the draft in Las Vegas and have kept in touch through text messages ever since, each watching the other’s games or highlights from afar, a sort of mutual admiration society from opposite sides of the earth.

Lane Hutson 🤝 Ivan Demidov#GoHabsGo | #RepêchageLNH | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/jR4U7dr3yd

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) June 29, 2024

“Not a crazy amount, but I know enough about what he’s been able to do with limited ice time,” Hutson said Thursday. “I always see his highlights, it’s pretty special what he’s able to do. But I think an underrated part of his game is how competitive he is and how he wants to win. To see him score some big goals in the KHL playoffs, it was pretty cool.

“I’ve texted him any time he’s done something pretty cool, just to tell him, ‘That was pretty cool, keep up the good work,’ just stuff like that. And he does the same thing. Nothing too crazy, just letting him know we’re excited that he’s a part of this organization and we’re excited to have him.”

Aside from Demidov’s competitiveness, which is obvious if you spend 10 minutes watching him play, what has always fascinated Hutson about him is his skating. He said it back in Vegas, he said it again Thursday.

“I think the mobility he has in his skating; he can skate all different directions pretty smoothly,” Hutson said. “It’s pretty cool to watch. And then I think the way he reads cues of the way other guys are moving. He’ll see a guy turn, and he knows he can beat him back to the middle, or stuff like that.

“He’s a special skater and I think he really understands those mental cues of when to move and when not to.”

That multi-directional mobility is at least somewhat similar to Hutson, is it not?

“I don’t think I’m that fast,” Hutson replied. “It is similar where we can change directions, but his is a little different. He’s super smooth. I think I’m more of a stop-and-go where he’s like patiently drifting into certain areas of the ice and then he’ll dart out quick and find a pocket of ice and be in a dangerous scoring area. So, it’s a little different, but I do get what you’re saying.”

This is what we were saying. Here’s Hutson navigating the offensive zone against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.

And here’s Demidov navigating the offensive zone in the KHL playoffs with SKA Saint Petersburg.

Again, at least somewhat similar in that instance, but Hutson is correct that Demidov’s ability to move across the ice in seemingly every direction is silky smooth and looks effortless, whereas Hutson’s skating style is not that. It is effortful.

But there is more in common between the two than just their offensive gifts.

“He just seems like he loves it and he’s happy to just play,” Hutson said of Demidov. “He just seems like such a nice guy, just excited about what’s here. I think he understands how important hockey is here, and he loves it.”

Hutson could have just as easily said that about himself.

Which brings us back to St. Louis and how he might incorporate Demidov when he arrives. We’ve seen this before, and it was with Hutson at the beginning of the season.

St. Louis was asked to think back to that time, to how he allowed Hutson’s gifts to flourish while also incorporating that into how he wants the Canadiens to play, and he didn’t deny there was a process there.

“I think early on he showed me enough how competitive he was, on both sides of the puck,” St. Louis said. “You’ve got to be careful in overcoaching these players, because they’re so dynamic, they can change a game quick. For me, in the early stages with Lane, it’s just make him understand that it’s not a one-on-one game, but there’s going to be one-on-one moments. And also, that he has to manage his risk.”

All of that could easily apply to Demidov, but the difference is that Hutson had a long runway to learn that, whereas Demidov will not. The Canadiens are in a phase of their season where there is little margin for error, and are about to enter a playoff environment where there is literally none.

But if Demidov is also similar to Hutson in the way he ingests information and applies it on the ice — which is the part St. Louis can’t know yet — it would bode well for his ability to adapt.

“To me, I feel (Hutson)’s done it. He’s improved tremendously,” St. Louis continued. “And if you talk to Lane about anything, it doesn’t take long for Lane to recognize and apply whatever you want. It’s instant. And for Lane, it was such an early stage with him that I can’t coach everything, because I don’t know yet if it’s a trend or a one-off.

“So I feel the young players know they’re going to have some breathing room so I can actually figure out what are his tendencies and not. And I feel that early in the season, there was a time he wasn’t managing his risk the way he should, but totally understanding he’s a young player. He probably hasn’t had to manage his risk his whole life, but at this level, you can get exposed when you take too much risk. And not just yourself, but you can expose the team. I think he’s improved tremendously in that department. I’m not worried.”

Having Hutson around and the mutual respect and admiration they have for each other will likely help Demidov in this way. But if St. Louis approaches Demidov the same way he approached Hutson, by giving him breathing room to identify tendencies versus one-offs while gaining the benefits of his incredible talent, then we might have a vague idea of how this might go once Demidov is in the lineup.

Maybe St. Louis will be just as unworried by Demidov as he is by Hutson.

“I came in the league in a totally different role than Lane,” St. Louis said of his own playing career. “I think when you’re a high prospect like that, you probably have a bigger runway, a longer leash.”

The Canadiens have no higher prospect than Demidov. So perhaps that’s a tell.

(Photo: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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