NEW YORK — Montreal Canadiens right wing Ivan Demidov, who topped all rookies with 4-10\u201414 in 15 games, has been named the NHL\u2019s \u201cRookie of the Month\u201d for December.<\/p>\n
Demidov edged Anaheim Ducks right wing Beckett Sennecke (5-6\u201411 in 15 GP), Detroit Red Wings defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka (2-7\u20149 in 15 GP), Vancouver Canucks center Linus Karlsson (5-3\u20148 in 13 GP), San Jose Sharks left wing Igor Chernyshov (3-5\u20148 in 7 GP) and Washington Capitals right wing Ryan Leonard (2-6\u20148 in 7 GP) for the honor.<\/p>\n
Demidov, the fifth overall pick from the 2024 NHL Draft, also ranked among the December rookie leaders in assists (1st; 10), even-strength assists (1st; 7), even-strength points (1st; 10), power-play assists (t-2nd; 3), power-play points (t-2nd; 4), goals (t-4th; 4) and even-strength goals (t-5th; 3).<\/p>\n
He found the scoresheet in 11 of his 15 December appearances, posting a five-game assist\/point streak from Dec. 3-11 (0-5\u20145) before closing the month on a four-game run (Dec. 21-30: 3-4\u20147). Only three Canadiens rookies have compiled more points in a single calendar month this century: Michael Ryder (7-9\u201416 in 14 GP in January 2004), Cole Caufield (7-8\u201415 in 15 GP in March 2022) and Lane Hutson (1-14\u201415 in 14 GP in March 2025).<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old Demidov paces NHL rookies with 10-23\u201433 through 39 total contests this season, also sitting among the top 2025-26 freshmen in assists (1st; 23), even-strength assists (1st; 15), shooting percentage (1st; 18.9% \u2013 minimum: 1 SOG\/GP), even-strength points (2nd; 23), power-play assists (2nd; 8), power-play points (t-2nd; 10), game-winning goals (t-2nd; 2), goals (3rd; 10) and even-strength goals (3rd; 8).<\/p>\n
Demidov \u2013 who joins New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (October) and Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt (November) as a recipient in 2025-26 \u2013 is the second Canadiens player in as many seasons to be named a \u201cRookie of the Month,\u201d following Huston (the eventual Calder Memorial Trophy<\/a> winner) in December 2024 and March 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — Montreal Canadiens right wing Ivan Demidov, who topped all rookies with 4-10\u201414 in 15 games,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-385505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}