{"id":774973,"date":"2026-07-02T07:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T07:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/774973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T07:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T07:21:12","slug":"canadiens-win-big-with-ivan-demidov-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/774973\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens win big with Ivan Demidov contract extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROSSARD, Que. \u2014 An eight-year, $73.2 million contract for Ivan Demidov<\/a> is the biggest win the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> could\u2019ve achieved on a day that set most teams up to lose big.<\/p>\n

Plenty did, dumping barrels of money into arguably the shallowest unrestricted free-agent pool in NHL history.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens, however, stayed out of those waters, avoiding the trap of making deals they\u2019d almost certainly regret and electing to swim in their own pool by locking up a huge piece of their core for what\u2019s likely to be a much smaller chunk of change than Demidov\u2019s contemporaries will command over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Not that Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier don\u2019t have better cases for bigger deals with their respective teams.<\/p>\n

But if they sign for what they\u2019re expected to \u2014 at least one of them for close to double what Demidov will make annually over the course of his contract if he signs for eight years \u2014 it\u2019ll only reinforce how much of a win this was for the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

General manager Kent Hughes might as well have been sipping Louis Roederer Cristal ‘Gold Medallion’ instead of the filtered water that was in front of him as he sat alongside Demidov to discuss it. Even with the salary cap rising significantly year over year, even with comparable players earmarked for bank-breaking deals, Hughes appeared elated to have gotten the same team-friendly commitment from his star that core members Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle, Noah Dobson, Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson made before him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ivan knows we have a certain salary structure with our team and, like our other players, he\u2019s a team player,\u201d said Hughes. \u201cHe\u2019s someone who wants to be part of something instead of being the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that Demidov, who led all NHL rookies with 62 points this past season, sold himself so short.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old got some trade protection baked into the deal at a time when every general manager is proceeding with serious caution about handing it out. He got $58 million in signing bonuses \u2014 $23 million of it secured through the first two years. He got enough money over eight years to take care of future generations of his family, money he only could\u2019ve dreamed of ever having as a kid of humble means from Sergiev Posad, Russia.<\/p>\n

That it\u2019s not the most important thing to Demidov, though, is a big part of what makes him worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney\u2019s a big part of your life because without it you can\u2019t have something,\u201d Demidov said. \u201cBut for me, the main thing is hockey. It\u2019s the No. 1 in my life. That\u2019s what I think. Money never going to be over hockey in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying that is one thing.<\/p>\n

But Demidov\u2019s actions \u2014 and not just the tantalizing ones he makes with the ridiculous talent that saw him drafted fifth overall by the Canadiens in 2024 \u2014 speak much louder.<\/p>\n

He was on the ice Wednesday morning with Hutson at 7:45 a.m. ET. It was a rare day in which he wasn\u2019t also putting in an afternoon session at the rink to which he owns keys, though he did say he was going straight to the gym following his press conference. And he didn\u2019t have to say what he\u2019d be doing Thursday, and Friday, and every other day in the lead-up to his next game in a Canadiens uniform.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows Demidov is a machine.<\/p>\n

His level of commitment, coupled with his top-percentile talent level, is priceless.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth much more to the Canadiens than Hughes is paying him, and the GM knows that.<\/p>\n

Hughes also knows the enormous value of the financial sacrifices Demidov, Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Guhle, Dobson, Hutson and Matheson have made, and he knows it must be capitalized on in short order.<\/p>\n

Not that the GM will be reckless in that aim as he continues to build around arguably the best-value core in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to reward what they\u2019ve done for this team by giving them the best chance to win,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThe sooner the better, as long as that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing \u2014 giving them a better chance to win. I don\u2019t want to do something that turns out to actually serve as an impediment to that objective because I thought I was helping.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was clear Wednesday, as Hughes opted not to throw good money at the type of bad filling the free-agent pool. It was clear as he showed restraint in what\u2019s been an extremely fruitful trade market over the past week \u2014 refusing to fill holes just for the sake of filling holes on the Canadiens\u2019 roster and refusing to make moves just to keep pace with the arms race in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Hughes once again reiterated on Wednesday what he had said five days prior (after the first round of the NHL Draft); that he couldn\u2019t guarantee when he\u2019d strike, but that he absolutely would when the time is right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we make a big deal and we sacrifice a certain portion of our future, it won\u2019t be for a 34- or 35-year-old,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be for someone who can complement our guys for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes repeated he\u2019s been on the phone nonstop; that he\u2019s been pursuing trades for impact players; that he won\u2019t stop until he gets what he wants. He asked for patience and trust from the fans, and indirectly asked for it from Demidov, even if he was doing so in French while the player, who doesn\u2019t speak the language, was sitting oblivious right next to him.<\/p>\n

But if Demidov didn\u2019t already believe, he wouldn\u2019t have jumped at his very first opportunity to sign long-term with the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t about the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust take a look on our team,\u201d Demidov said. \u201cWe have a good core, and everyone is similar age, and everyone wants to win the Cup, and everyone is hungry, so that\u2019s what makes me more motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what makes his contract a huge win.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens weren\u2019t signing a better one on this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROSSARD, Que. \u2014 An eight-year, $73.2 million contract for Ivan Demidov is the biggest win the Montreal Canadiens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-774973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}