{"id":898667,"date":"2026-09-20T07:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898667\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T07:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:42:13","slug":"canadiens-notebook-early-signs-suggest-demidov-will-take-another-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898667\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Notebook: Early signs suggest Demidov will take another ‘step’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL\u2014 It was a smooth redirect from Ivan Demidov<\/a>. This one delivered in the room after he spent his night dekeing and deceiving every Toronto Maple Leaf in his path in a 4-3 overtime win for his Montreal Canadiens<\/a> at Bell Centre.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pre-season, but Demidov, who scored a goal on Saturday, is already in mid-season form both on and off the ice.<\/p>\n

We asked him if anything he worked on during the off-season translated immediately for him through this first game back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tell me,\u201d the 20-year-old Russian, who paced all rookies in scoring with 62 points last season, retorted.<\/p>\n

We were thinking on a rather granular level, so we suggested the way he smoothly picked the puck up off the boards and consistently turned those possessions into threats was attention-grabbing.<\/p>\n

Demidov acknowledged that was one thing\u2026<\/p>\n

But only one thing, because this kid\u2019s bag of tricks is overflowing.<\/p>\n

The feeling he can access all of them now is palpable, even if the first glimpse of that came against Toronto\u2019s B squad in a meaningless game.<\/p>\n

What are the early signs Demidov can go from dangerous in Year 1 to lethal in Year 2?<\/p>\n

We asked Martin St. Louis, and he delivered the type of insightful answer we\u2019ve come to expect from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, maybe he\u2019s gained a little bit of a step,\u201d the coach of the Canadiens said. \u201cNot that he was slow, (but) I feel there\u2019s a little more jump, a little more power, a little more strength. I don\u2019t know what it is, but I felt like I saw that tonight, I\u2019ve been seeing it in practice, which always will help you get places quicker if you anticipate the right way. And you find better pockets if you have a little bit more of a step.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was really good in space tonight. Demi\u2019s able to create space for himself. He looks like he\u2019s going to get closed off and he\u2019s able to turn on a dime and go the other way. Very slippery that way. But you can be slippery and immediately create separation with that step I\u2019m talking about it, and you get your eyes up and he has all the talent and the skill to execute the next thing, and he can do that. So, based on what I\u2019ve seen so far, I feel like he\u2019s just got another step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Combine that step with improved skill, closer attention to detail and increased comfort in the NHL, and someone that\u2019s already great becomes special.<\/p>\n

And if Demidov continues to do what he did on Saturday \u2014 he notched nine shot attempts \u2014 he could go from hard to stop to practically unstoppable.<\/p>\n

He says he intends to have more of a shooter\u2019s mentality, and St. Louis said that\u2019s a natural evolution for the gifted playmaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemi\u2019s a really good passer, but I think he\u2019s learning to find that balance and make the best play possible instead of just making a pass,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cI think with experience, he can make clearer reads on it instead of always thinking of passing. That always gets better with experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are several aspects of Demidov\u2019s play that will improve with experience.<\/p>\n

But Saturday\u2019s game was just one sample of how fast he applies what he learns.<\/p>\n

Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj battling more than just each other for spot<\/p>\n

Through parts of this game, they were battling themselves, and that\u2019ll have to change in a hurry over this shortened pre-season.<\/p>\n

St. Louis still likes the potential of Struble and Xhekaj as a pair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re two guys that play a physical game,\u201d said the coach. \u201cYou look at (Kaiden Guhle) Guhles can\u2019t start the season, it\u2019s a scenario that maybe those two play together\u2026 They\u2019ve done it last year. We\u2019ll keep evaluating, but I like what I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Struble didn\u2019t, as he and Xhekaj were both caught out of position on goals the Maple Leafs scored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely wasn\u2019t happy with my personal performance,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have it really tonight. The plays I was making, some decisions\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

They were questionable, and easily attributable to rust after just a couple of practices.<\/p>\n

But Struble needs to shake it off immediately if he\u2019s going to win the competition for a regular spot, which will be that much harder once Guhle returns in four weeks.<\/p>\n

Xhekaj will be challenged, too, though he feels his edge \u2014 the physicality and toughness he plays with \u2014 can give him a leg up. At least the six-foot-four, 236-pounder exhibited that throughout this game.<\/p>\n

St. Louis said he felt Xhekaj played to his DNA, and that\u2019s a check in the plus column for him.<\/p>\n

But there are many more boxes to fill for both he and Struble, who are on expiring contracts.<\/p>\n

Both need to find consistency from shift to shift but also within each shift they play, and they have to do it in a hurry \u2014 and not just because Guhle won\u2019t be out too long.<\/p>\n

Our spies in Toronto said Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher both fared well against the Maple Leafs\u2019 A squad in a 4-1 win for the Canadiens B squad, and both players are pushing hard to unseat Struble or Xhekaj.<\/p>\n

Give a couple clicks for Luke Mittelstadt<\/p>\n

It\u2019s premature to suggest Mittelstadt is a threat to any of those four defencemen at this stage, but at least he\u2019s making himself noticeable.<\/p>\n

That started last week, when Mittelstadt was a notch above the players at the prospects challenge in Gatineau, Que., last week.<\/p>\n

Hey, he should\u2019ve been at 23 years old, up against a lot of younger players.<\/p>\n

But Mittelstadt was also anything but out of place in his first NHL pre-season game Saturday.<\/p>\n

Former Canadiens defenceman and current development coach Francis Bouillon told us he liked the player\u2019s competitiveness and smarts before the Canadiens signed him to his two-year, entry-level contract last spring and plugged him into their American Hockey League lineup so he could get his feet wet at the professional level. And we could understand Bouillon having a soft spot for a longshot, five-foot-11 defenceman, especially considering his own history.<\/p>\n

But Mittelstadt lived up to Bouillon\u2019s billing Saturday. He played hard, with a lot of poise, and his speed and puck movement enabled him to show as one of the best players on the ice.<\/p>\n

A cynic would say it doesn\u2019t matter that Mittelstadt stood out under these circumstances, especially with so many defencemen ahead of him on Montreal\u2019s depth chart.<\/p>\n

But try telling a kid who was drafted 197th overall that a strong showing in his first-ever pro game in a Canadiens uniform at the Bell Centre meant nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Mittelstadt said.<\/p>\n

We thought it was impressive.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find out in time if it was a strong first step towards an improbable NHL career, but at least Mittelstadt left us wondering about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL\u2014 It was a smooth redirect from Ivan Demidov. This one delivered in the room after he spent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-898667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898667","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=898667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}