Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov flashes dazzling potential in playoffs | HI/O Bonus

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:13]Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of the Gazette Hockey Inside Out Show.

[00:00:16]I'm Stu Cowan of the Gazette and I'm joined by former Canes defenseman and 1986 Stanley Cup champion Rick Green and my Gazette colleague and what the puck columnist Brandon Kelly. Uh Brandon, Ivan Demidov, I mean the talent is obvious. We've seen it right from day one with this kid.

[00:00:33]Selected fifth overall by the Canes at the draft. Um been sort of hot and cold in the playoffs a little bit, but I mean we've seen flashes of brilliance. Has this been sort of a coming out party for him?

[00:00:43]>> I don't think it's quite a coming out party, but I mean we I've loved what I've seen from Demidov and you got to keep in mind the guy's a rookie. This is his rookie season. He had a great season uh by any by any metric. Um it's not his coming out party because it's more potential than actual fact, right? Like he's he's not killing it in terms of the points and the goals, but he looks great out there. I mean you have to you know and I hate to say it and we I mean we all love Jake Evans as a player. He brings so much to the team, but he is not in any universe a second line center and so that's the guy he's playing with Demidov and Evans's you know forte is penalty kill, defensive play. Um it it he's not the guy like Demidov, you know, is is he needs a center to feed him the puck. I mean he's I love this guy. Like his attitude is fantastic cuz again, you know, you're in the Stanley Cup playoffs. You're in the conference final. We're been talking, you know, all week about how tough it is to play the Hurricanes and he goes right in there.

[00:01:49]He doesn't back away from anything and the skill level's off the charts and you can just see that potential and he scored some big goals. Um but I think if you know, there was a lot of discussion during various uh series given, you know, how disappointing it's been really for Slafkovsky that maybe that was a switch that could have been made to put Demidov up on the first line and then then I think, you know, if he had been playing with a center called Nick Suzuki, it might well have been his coming out party. But it's still still a work in progress cuz cuz he's he's not necessarily on the best of lines. But I think we've seen something in these playoffs. I mean, you think back to last year when he was just starting and he was like a fish out of water. It's like, you're coming from the KHL and this is a this is a whole other ballgame. But I think the upside with Ivan Demidov, I mean, uh you know, I think like most people that probably the two best players on this team are Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson and the potential of what's going to happen in the years to come. It's just the you see the raw talent that Demidov has, right? Like the shot, the passing ability. And he obviously has the compete level, too. This guy's got full-on heart. And you know, one of the greatest things was like early on he was trying and trying and he didn't score.

[00:03:09]When he finally scored and I loved that moment. The guy's got the smile, right?

[00:03:13]That lights up the Bell Centre. And and Martin St. Louis leaned over and obviously said, "Look, you got it got it done. Congrats." That was beautiful.

[00:03:21]He's going to be a great player, but he's not quite there yet. The these playoffs.

[00:03:25]>> Rick, what really impresses me about him for a young kid is that how hard he competes at both ends of the ice. I mean, he battles hard in the defensive zone and wins a lot of one-on-one puck battles. He's just great at that little come from behind lift the stick, take the puck off the guy. Uh what's impressed you most about watching him?

[00:03:40]>> Uh I just love his strength on the pocket, his ability to uh you know, dipsy do, if you will, and under control. And his vision also is is excellent as a young guy. And you know, let's not forget he's a guy that's now experiencing uh what playoff hockey's all about and how difficult it is to have any success uh at this stage of the season. And he has all the ingredients to be a really, really good uh impactful player uh with that hockey club, with the Canadians. And um he's learning. He's going to chalk this up as experience that uh he'll he'll learn from it. He'll bring it with him, and he'll develop uh continue to develop on a very positive uh note and be really, really effective for a long time, I think, in the NHL.

[00:04:31]>> As Brandon mentioned, Rick, I mean, I think the number one priority for Kent Hughes going in to this off season is to find a center to play with Drouin, and you know, as you mentioned, Brandon, no knock on Jake Evans. I mean, he brings everything he has every game.

[00:04:43]Outstanding penalty killer, a solid third or fourth line center on a legitimate uh Stanley Cup team. But Rick, I think one of the things with Drouin is needs to shoot the puck more, but I think that's right through this team. For a young guy like that, if you're as coach with him, how do you drill into him to shoot the puck?

[00:05:00]>> Well, they they all want to make those fancy cross-seam passes, the the ooh ah from the, you know, the crowd saying, "Oh, that was that was unbelievable."

[00:05:10]But sometimes you have to, and we we dealt with that with Slav, that he would he wouldn't shoot the puck. He would always try and pass it or, you know, try and force things that weren't there. So, Drouin, he's uh he's a smart enough player. He he understands his skill set. Um he he will he will adjust, and he will get his opportunity, and he will score goals.

[00:05:34]>> Definitely a bright future ahead for him, but again, the Kings got to find a center to play with them. Anyway, that's it for this bonus episode. I hope you all enjoyed it. We'll have one more coming up over the next couple of days.

[00:05:43]You can look for that. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to the Hockey Inside Out YouTube channel. And in case you didn't already know, Hockey Inside Out is now available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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