Selected fifth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2024 NHL Draft, Russian prospect Ivan Demidov is currently playing out the last year of his KHL contract with plans to make his way to North America next season.
While his ongoing tenure at SKA St. Petersburg has already featured plenty of ups and downs, it looks like the European club wants to keep the 18-year-old forward around for longer than expected.
As per a Thursday report from Nicolas Cloutier of TVA Sports, Demidov’s current team has already made him three separate contract extension offers.
Ivan Demidov a-t-il refusé trois fois une offre de prolongation de contrat du SKA le mois dernier?
C'est du moins ce que prétend une source près de l'entourage du joueur.
Voilà qui expliquerait bien des choses. https://t.co/Pu7QegyHNj
— Nicolas Cloutier (@NCloutierTVA) October 17, 2024
“Ivan refused all three times,” an anonymous source close to the Canadiens prospect told Cloutier over the phone. “He doesn’t want to know anything about another year with SKA.”
Despite producing points, Demidov has seen his ice time dwindling and has even been a healthy scratch on recent occasions. The unnamed source insists that this treatment from SKA’s head coach is a result of Demidov not wanting to stay.
“For head coach Roman Rotenberg, the contract situation is a very important issue,” the unnamed source added. “Rotenberg has done this to several other players in the past. He doesn’t understand that you need to go about it in other ways to convince a player with his potential to stay.”
With tension over Demidov’s lack of playing opportunities mounting, Jeff Gorton, the Canadiens’ executive vice president, did not mince words when addressing the issue in an RDS interview earlier this week.
“We’ve seen what you see with his ice time dipping. We are in contact with the [SKA] organization. They know how we feel,” the 56-year-old said. “It’s certain that we would like him to play a lot more. It’s a situation that is beyond our control and can be frustrating.”
Those sentiments already seem to have made their way overseas as St. Petersburg’s bench boss is finding it increasingly difficult to keep the young star, who has nine points in 16 games, out of the lineup.
Ivan Demidov took matters into his own hands. 😤
5th goal by the 18-year-old forward! pic.twitter.com/sD6lhvESyV
— KHL (@khl_eng) October 15, 2024
“[Rotenberg] feels the pressure from the media and from outside to give Ivan more playing time, because Ivan is excellent when he gets on the ice,” Cloutier’s source noted. “When he plays three to five minutes, every one of his shifts is incredible, he makes creative plays.
In the meantime, Gorton and the rest of the Habs brass will have to remain patient until they can take charge of the young winger’s development.
“We have to respect his contract in Russia. He has only one year left on his deal with SKA,” Gorton added. “We will be patient with him and we look forward to seeing him in Montreal.”