{"id":839111,"date":"2026-09-07T04:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839111\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T04:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:10:09","slug":"he-wanted-this-deal-agent-explains-ivan-demidovs-team-friendly-contract-with-canadiens-as-nhl-salaries-skyrocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839111\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He wanted this deal\u2019: Agent explains Ivan Demidov\u2019s team-friendly contract with Canadiens as NHL salaries skyrocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the salary cap increase and record-breakingly high contracts<\/a> every few weeks, Ivan Demidov\u2019s<\/a> team-friendly discount is standing out more and more as time goes by.<\/p>\n

Even his agent would\u2019ve taken a different deal; he admitted to the Montreal Gazette<\/a> as part of a feature explaining Demidov\u2019s recent contract and the decision to take a lower salary.<\/p>\n

But the 20-year-old Demidov, like much of the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> team, had enough belief in the Canadiens\u2019 core that he took a lower AAV to give management more room to maneuver in the future, settling for an eight-year contract on July 1, worth $9.15 million annually, which begins during the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted the eight-year deal. He wanted it done quickly and wanted to leave room (financially) for Montreal to get even better,\u201d Demidov\u2019s agent, Dan Milstein, said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to leave money on the table so they can sign other players.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Montreal does, indeed, have plenty of money left on the table. Currently, they have almost $10 million dollars in cap space remaining, per PuckPedia<\/a>, placing them in the bottom 10 teams in predicted cap hit.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Demidov\u2019s) exact words were: \u2018We\u2019re in a great situation. I feel like we\u2019re going to be winning for many years,’\u201d Milstein relayed. \u201cHe wanted this deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Demidov taking less is becoming rarer across the NHL, his discount decision is the norm in Montreal.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens have locked up their young core until 2030 for less than $10 million yearly each, as they buy into the team\u2019s long-term success. It seems to be paying off so far, with the squad making it to the Eastern Conference Finals last season for the first time since 2021, and just the second time since 2014.<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens young core contract AAVs<\/p>\n

Player
\nAAV
\nContract until<\/p>\n

Noah Dobson
\n$9.5 mil
\n2033<\/p>\n

Ivan Demidov
\n$9.15 mil
\n2035<\/p>\n

Lane Hutson
\n$8.85 mil
\n2034<\/p>\n

Nick Suzuki
\n$7.88 mil
\n2030<\/p>\n

Cole Caufield
\n$7.85 mil
\n2031<\/p>\n

Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd
\n$7.6 mil
\n2033<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] wanted to be like everyone else on the team,\u201d Milstein said of his contract.<\/p>\n

Demidov had a case for more money, especially in the league\u2019s current climate. He led all rookies in points with 62 last season, and only trailed Macklin Celebrini<\/a> in points for his 2024 draft class.<\/p>\n

His only draft-class superior, scoring-wise, Celebrini recently signed a five-year, $18.8 million contract<\/a> to temporarily become the league\u2019s highest-paid player in history. Celebrini was dethroned a month later by Cale Makar<\/a>\u2018s $20.4 million AAV. Connor Bedard<\/a>, just a year older than Demidov, recently signed a five-year deal worth $15 million annually.<\/p>\n

The salary spikes started, in part with the salary cap increase, when the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> gave Leo Carlson a $18 million AAV offer sheet, which the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> matched for the highest contract in history, at the time.<\/p>\n

Although Demidov took a discount this time, Milstein is confident his client\u2019s value will only grow as he spends more time in the NHL. He believes that once he is an unrestricted free agent at 28, Demidov will be able to sign a contract that is \u201cfour or five times bigger than what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the time being, Ivan is extremely happy. He\u2019s grateful and gracious,\u201d Milstein said. \u201cNo regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a Milstein client has taken a team-friendly deal. Aliaksei Protas<\/a> is on his third yer of a five year contract, worth $3.375 million a year, with the Washington Capitals<\/a>. Protas has scored 30 and 25 goals the last two seasons respectively and is one of the league\u2019s best five-on-five players.<\/p>\n

Milstein also represents Aliaksei\u2019s brother, Ilya Protas<\/a>, as well as Ivan Miroshnichenko<\/a>, and Eriks Mateiko.<\/p>\n

S\/T @RinkyReport<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the salary cap increase and record-breakingly high contracts every few weeks, Ivan Demidov\u2019s team-friendly discount is standing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-839111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}