When the Montreal Canadiens signed Ivan Demidov to an eight-year, $73.2 million contract extension, they made a significant bet on his future. The contract will make Demidov Montreal’s highest-paid forward once his entry-level contract expires, putting him ahead of established offensive players like Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. That is a substantial commitment to a player who had only completed his rookie season. While the spring brought a rigorous playoff learning curve, where the physical demands and limited time and space tested his game-breaking ability, the organization saw enough upside to make a massive long-term statement.
At 20 years old, Demidov has already shown why Montreal is willing to make that bet. His rookie season introduced a player capable of creating offense at an elite level, and there were moments when his combination of skill, creativity and intelligence placed him among the most dangerous young playmakers in the league. Suzuki has already reached 100 points and Caufield has established himself as a 50-goal scorer, yet Demidov has the potential to develop into the most impactful offensive player of the three. That may seem like a lofty projection for a player entering his second NHL season, but the foundation of his game makes it a bet worth examining.
Production
Through Demidov’s rookie season, he consistently found ways to produce offense and drive play for his team. While his goals come from a variety of different situations, specific trends emerge within the way he scores. Demidov possesses an excellent release, and he’s able to showcase the deception of how quickly that puck comes off his blade both in-stride or in-motion, as well as during stationary one-timer scenarios. Demidov’s physical strength is not what drives the way he releases the puck, because his release relies entirely on pure technique. He generates an incredible amount of torque through his hips and maximizes his flexion as he releases the puck, distributing his weight extremely cleanly. In tight areas, his hands and pure puck skill allow him to become a major problem for opposing goaltenders since he remains deceptive and quick, enabling Demidov to finish plays with style. Demidov’s spatial awareness and his understanding of how plays develop allow him to effortlessly work to open space and select routes placing himself in quality scoring positions with exceptional timing. This combination makes him a consistent scoring threat.
While Demidov functions as a premier scoring threat, what makes him truly dangerous offensively is his playmaking capability. Elite hockey IQ players operate within three distinct levels of understanding how to navigate the game. The first level involves reading the play, recognizing patterns regarding how plays develop, and understanding time and space. The second level involves applying those reads in real time to deviate based on processed information and how the play evolves. The third level, which is where Demidov operates, combines reading plays and understanding available options with the unique ability to completely manipulate how a play will unfold. Demidov’s ability to manipulate plays by using deception or baiting in opposing players leads to an abundance of offensive opportunities for himself and for his teammates. He excels at hitting ever changing seams through the middle of the ice with pinpoint accuracy, constantly moving pucks east-west quickly to increase the percentage of plays crossing the midline and forcing goaltenders to move laterally with speed to make saves.
Baiting
Part of Demidov’s ability to manipulate how plays develop stems from how he baits opponents and pulls them out of position. He frequently takes the puck and works his way to quiet ice, changing his pace by speeding up or slowing down to provoke a reaction from the opposition. Manipulating defenders to chase in an attempt to engage creates valuable pockets of space all over the offensive zone. His strategy often involves pulling opponents toward the perimeter before making a quick, calculated strike to the middle of the ice to find a teammate in a high danger scoring position. He has also demonstrated a willingness to drive straight through the middle to force converging defenders to collapse on him, only to drop the puck to a teammate who now has a clear lane to attack. National Hockey League defenders are intelligent players, and getting them to consistently fall for these traps is difficult, which speaks volumes about the effectiveness of his execution. He disguises his intentions well by frequently altering his posture, shifting his weight, or turning his body into vulnerable positions only to quickly deviate the moment an opponent engages.
Deception
A multitude of deceptive tactics allow Demidov to further manipulate plays in different ways. Much of his deception forces opponents to shift their skates and adjust their body weight in ways that limit mobility and give him an advantage to exploit. Common themes in his repertoire include opening his hips and shifting his weight to get an opponent to flinch and freeze before deviating, throwing subtle head fakes, and utilizing his reach by placing pucks where opponents want to reach before quickly pulling the puck back outside his body. He also utilizes pump fakes by leaning on his stick and shifting his weight to signal a shot before threading a pass through a seam. Mixing these tactics together makes Demidov incredibly unpredictable to opposing defenders, forcing them to handle him with extreme caution because one miscalculated step allows him to completely burn them. The way he shifts his weight and opens his hips to freeze the defender before pushing off his inside edge with his back foot and transferring weight to accelerate off his front foot, often completely clearing the defender in the process, is quickly becoming his signature maneuver and has turned into nightmare fuel for some of the league's most steady defenders.
Skating Mechanics
Demidov may possess the most unique skating mechanics in the entire National Hockey League, and he uses them to his absolute advantage. His edgework is elite, allowing him to generate massive amounts of power and explosiveness within a short time frame. Watching his mechanics across different game situations reveals specific performance trends. His cross-overs and cross-unders are exceptional, and he supplements them with a distinct ability to widen his stance while using extreme ankle flexion to dig into his inside edges to generate power. Utilizing that wide stance to maintain speed and even accelerate during a glide is something very few players in the league can achieve. While other players occasionally use a wide stance in specific scenarios, Demidov’s style operates on an entirely different level. A great deal of his power and explosiveness stems from his inside edges and his “10 and 2” style cuts in tight areas. He uses these pushes and strides to maximize small area explosiveness while maintaining an exceptional level of control, balance, stability, and efficiency.
Puck Battles
One underrated element of Demidov’s game is his proficiency in recovering loose pucks and winning puck battles. Despite lacking pure physical strength, his strategy regarding loose pucks and contested battles relies on a cerebral approach and exceptional problem-solving skills. He approaches with purpose, attacking at the proper angle and establishing inside position upon engagement. Securing that inside position is essential because it allows him to utilize leverage and physics rather than competing with brute force, enabling him to slide underneath an opponent’s stick to lift it or push through the bottom of the blade. Demidov pairs determination with a quick stick as he engages in 50/50 battles, and once he secures possession, his elite problem-solving takes over to protect the puck and advance it to a teammate to maintain clean possession.
At just 20 years old, Ivan Demidov has already established himself as one of the NHL’s most dynamic young playmakers, leading all NHL rookies with 62 points and earning a well-deserved finalist nod for the Calder Memorial Trophy. His rookie season provided a glimpse of just how much offensive impact he can have, but the most exciting part may be how much room there is for that impact to grow.
The eight-year extension is a reflection of how strongly Montreal believes in Demidov potential. His ability to manipulate defenders, create space in small areas, and consistently turn reads into dangerous offensive opportunities gives him the foundation of a truly elite player. The tools are already there. Now, Montreal's bet is on just how far he can take them.
Chris Whalen
Chris Whalen is a Player Development Expert, Hockey Analyst and former OHL Executive with nearly a decade of experience in OHL Hockey Operations. Through executive management, scouting, video coaching and player development, Chris has built a career around analyzing the game and breaking down the decisions, habits and details that separate players at the next level.
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