MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens have been straddling a delicate line this season as they entered into a precarious phase of their rebuilding process.
General manager Kent Hughes said it right from the start, that the Canadiens had exited a pure talent acquisition phase and were entering more of a targeted team-building phase. It is a more difficult process than simply selling off players at the trade deadline every year and accumulating as many draft picks and prospects as possible.
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The line the Canadiens were hoping to straddle was keeping the future front of mind, the ultimate goal of being a Stanley Cup contender year after year, but also taking care of the present and the modest goal of playing meaningful games at the end of the season.
The Canadiens had already reached that modest goal weeks ago, but a 4-1 win Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings all but assured them of reaching a far more challenging goal of making the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Canadiens have an eight-point lead over four teams chasing them for the final playoff spot, each of which has five games left to play. It would take a monumental collapse from the Canadiens and an incredible hot streak from one of those four teams for the Canadiens to miss the playoffs at this point.
And yet, somehow, in the grand scheme of those concurrent priorities, this was perhaps the second-most important news of the day Tuesday. Earlier that afternoon, the Canadiens announced Ivan Demidov, the No. 5 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and considered by many to be the best prospect in the world, had signed his entry-level contract and would be coming to Montreal as soon as his immigration papers could be sorted out.
The convergence of these two incredibly significant events on the same day made Tuesday perhaps the most important day the Canadiens have had since losing in the Stanley Cup Final four years ago. That might sound hyperbolic, but it really isn’t when you consider the line the Canadiens are trying to straddle here.
They are on the cusp of not only returning to the playoffs, but also of welcoming a player who is so central to them one day becoming a consistent Stanley Cup contender, the type of offensive wizard Canadiens fans have waited decades to see wear the historic CH sweater.
A significant moment for the present and a significant moment for the future all wrapped into one momentous day.
There was a moment in the game Tuesday night that encapsulated why Demidov’s arrival is so significant, and it should come to no one’s surprise that Lane Hutson was at the heart of it, because his offensive wizardry over his rookie season has somewhat sated this fan base.
What Hutson pulled off on Justin Holl here and throughout the rest of this shift has become commonplace, but what’s most important is the reaction of the crowd to what they saw, the feeling it gave them, the energy that filled the Bell Centre as a result of this one play. The Canadiens had been largely dormant until this point, outshot 32-11 through two periods and not giving those fans much reason to get excited.
And then, this.
Josh Anderson did not bury that chance Hutson created for him in front of the net, and he felt bad about it afterward because he scored the game winner on a nearly identical play off a pass from Christian Dvorak a little over three minutes later.
Toc toc toc, c’est Josh 🚪
Knock, knock, it’s Josh#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/aZDKNfgOAL
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 9, 2025
But that crowd reaction to what Hutson did on that shift is why fans are so excited to see Demidov, because of his potential to do similar things.
Hughes did not address the media Tuesday — the Canadiens decided management would only do so once Demidov arrives in Montreal and it remains unclear when that might happen — but he did do a pre-arranged interview on the TSN broadcast at the first intermission of the game.
“We don’t want to put too much expectations on (Demidov), we’re talking about a 19-year-old kid travelling across the world to come play,” Hughes told TSN. “Hopefully he gets a game in or two before playoffs, if we are able to make them, and we’ll see how he fits in. We’ll play it by ear.”
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Sorry. Too late.
Expectations on Demidov will be through the roof as soon as he pulls on that Canadiens sweater, because of just how excited Hughes and his scouting staff were to draft Demidov to begin with, because of how closely large pockets of the Canadiens fan base were following his every move in Russia this season, and because of what he represents for the future and, suddenly, the present as well.
“Clearly he was very happy to end up in Montreal,” Canadiens co-director of amateur scouting Nick Bobrov said at the draft in June. “His family was looking forward to that. Part of the reason he wanted to be in Montreal was because he loves pressure. He embraces pressure and thrives on it. Sometimes we ask kids whether or not they will be OK playing in this city. He was begging for it. So that’s a good sign.”
Bobrov later added, “His ceiling is as high as some of the best players in the league. And he expects nothing less than that from himself, which is the most important part.”
Here are a few of the first things Demidov said after he was drafted in June:
“I’m pretty happy to be Habs. I’m so excited. I think it looks good.”
“I think my play style is like Jack Hughes mixed with Kirill Kaprizov, like a combo. I think maybe a little bit of Nikita Kucherov’s skills, like his vision.”
“My idol in sports is Kobe Bryant, and this season I tried to take his Mamba mentality. What is the first word, instinct killer? And I think I won many games when I scored the winning goal. I think I can be a game breaker for Montreal.”
No, keeping expectations reasonable will not be possible here.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis has been emphasizing his team’s collective game for weeks, how the team’s cohesion and belief in each other has fueled this journey to the very edge of a playoff spot.
In all likelihood, by the time Demidov dons that Canadiens sweater for the first time, they will have already clinched a postseason berth. And though St. Louis is very protective of his group and its cohesiveness, he left no ambiguity as to the possibility of Demidov getting in a game, that he is aligned with what management wants to see happen here before the end of the regular season.
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“I don’t know when he’s going to be here, but it’s reasonable (to think he’ll play). We signed him, we know he’s coming,” he said. “It’s very reasonable to think he’s going to put a Canadiens jersey on.”
What makes that calculation easier for St. Louis is the genuine excitement in the Canadiens dressing room to see Demidov up close.
Anderson was taking his game-day nap when the news broke that Demidov would be coming to Montreal. When he woke up, it was his father, Gary — a Montreal native and lifelong Canadiens fan — who told Anderson what had happened while he slept.
“Yeah, my dad was excited,” Anderson said. “There was definitely a buzz around the rink before the game with that news. Obviously he’s an exceptional player that we have in our organization. We’re excited to have him here. …We’ve heard nothing but good things. Obviously he’s an exceptional player that’s going to help us out in many ways if he gets that opportunity.
“There’s been a lot of buzz around the room, honestly. We’re excited to see him.”
Kaiden Guhle gave the same impression that the Canadiens would welcome the infusion of talent Demidov would represent.
“The guys talk about it, you see the highlight-reel goals he scores and the clips, and he’s doing that in probably the second-best pro league. That’s pretty cool to see,” Guhle said. “I’m sure it’ll be a little bit of an adjustment, smaller ice and the NHL’s the best league in the world, but I’m sure with all the skill he’s got, he’ll be alright.”
Cole Caufield might have been the most emphatic in the Canadiens room about Demidov’s arrival.
“I think everybody’s pretty fired up,” he said. “I can’t wait for him to get here, to be honest with you.”
Which brings us back to Hutson, the source of that crowd-swelling play Tuesday night. He was at the draft in Las Vegas in June to see his younger brother Cole get drafted by the Washington Capitals in the second round.
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As excited and happy as he was for his brother, Hutson seemed just as excited to know the Canadiens were able to draft Demidov because he’d been following his highlights throughout his draft year.
“He’s a really good skater, silky smooth hands, underrated playmaker, great shot,” Hutson said back then. “He’s kind of the whole package and then some. It’s exciting for our forwards, but especially for a (defenceman) like me who likes to get it up to those guys.”
Hutson was not made available to speak after the game against the Red Wings, but it would not be hard to guess his reaction to the news that Demidov was on his way to Montreal, whenever that might be.
This game that moved the Canadiens to within three points of the Ottawa Senators and three points of clinching a playoff spot featured Caufield scoring his 37th goal of the season, something no Canadiens player had done since Max Pacioretty scored 37 in 2014-15, and he has a chance to be the Canadiens’ first 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94. It featured Nick Suzuki adding two more points to reach 86 on the season, something no Canadiens player had done since Pierre Turgeon had 96 and Damphousse had 94 in 1995-96.
There is already plenty to be excited about, but just how long some of those offensive benchmarks have stood unchallenged explains why fans have been so desperate for someone like Demidov, why many fans were so upset the team decided not to draft Matvei Michkov at No. 5 in 2023, and why keeping expectations reasonable will be so difficult when Demidov plays that first game, whenever that may be.
As loud as the Bell Centre got after Hutson turned Holl inside out Tuesday night, it will pale in comparison to the first time Demidov takes that same ice.
It could easily be argued the Canadiens didn’t necessarily deserve to win Tuesday night against the Red Wings. They got off to a horrendous start for the third game in a row, outshot 23-4 in the first period but down only 1-0 after 20 minutes thanks to the heroics of goaltender Sam Montembeault.
That didn’t matter, though.
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The Canadiens are all but assured of going to the playoffs, and now it looks as though they will be entering those playoffs with the most exciting prospect in the world in their lineup, a player that has energized both their dressing room and their fan base without ever having stepped foot in the country.
What mattered Tuesday is they won, both on and off the ice, and it was impossible not to get the sense the Canadiens rebuild was the biggest winner as the present and the future converged in a single day.
(Photo: Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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