The NEWEST Habs Priority!

The Montreal Canadiens have a new top priority — getting Ivan Demidov under contract.

In this episode, Shaun Starr and Marco D’Amico break down why Demidov is the next major piece of business for Kent Hughes and the Habs front office. After a dominant season, how does Demidov’s production stack up against Lane Hutson’s Calder-worthy rookie campaign from last year?

We dive into:

Demidov’s season and trajectory
How his numbers compare to Lane Hutson’s breakout year
What kind of contract Demidov could command
NHL comparables for young elite forwards signing their second deals
Key timelines and important dates for the Canadiens to get a deal done

Will Demidov follow the same path as Hutson, or are we looking at a completely different type of contract and negotiation?

This is a crucial moment in the Canadiens rebuild — and locking up Demidov could shape the future of this team.

🔥 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for daily Montreal Canadiens coverage!

#montrealcanadiens #nhl #hockey

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The Star D'Amico Show is brought to you by CheapestT-Shirts.ca. If you're looking for quality gear without overpaying, shop cheapesthirts.ca. Food selection for men, women, and kids. Tees, hoodies, headwear, bags, and more. Proud Montreal Business. Order today, ship today, delivery tomorrow. That's cheapesthirts.ca. Local, fast, and affordable. Brought to you by Instacustoms.com. Do you need custom gear from a local Montreal business? Instacustoms.com has you covered. Custom shirts, hoodies, hats, and more. Made your way. Fast turnaround, great quality, and proudly Montreal-based. Check out Instacustoms.com. Brought to you by Cablitel. For trusted alarm systems in Quebec and eastern Ontario, choose Cablatel. Over 20 years of expert installation and top-tier protection for homes and businesses. Check out Cablitel.com, email them infocablotel.com. It's Cablitel. Peace of mind you can count on. Brought to you by Little Bear. Give your pet the best with Little Bear Pet Supply. It's a proudly family-owned business here in Montreal for over 30 years. Chuck Eve and their all-star staff have you taken care of with all the top brands at the best prices, and they really care for your pets. Shop online at LittleBearOnline.com or visit them on St. Catherine across from Westmount Square. It's Little Bear Pet Supply. Brought to you by McLean's Pub. Head over to McLean's Pub, 1210 Peel Street in the heart of downtown Montreal. Great food, cold drinks, and big games on all the screens. McClain's Pub, good times and great company. There's Marco D'Amico. I'm Sean Starr. Thanks for being with us on a massive week for the Montreal Canadians. As always, hit that like and subscribe button as the ongoing community of Star and Domico for your daily habs content continues to grow. Thanks so much for your ongoing support and your viewership. And of course, you can always find us on TSN 690 Monday nights and uh wherever you get your favorite audio podcasts like iHeartRadio and Spotify and iTunes. The Montreal Canadians, as we elaborated on earlier, in regards to the salary cap and its dramatic rise and an advantageous position, Marco, for the Montreal Canadians. Let's dig in on mudding superstar Ivan Demidov, who's on pace for a 60 uh point season this year. Let's talk about what that timeline looks like. Marco, when is he eligible in terms of Ala Lane Hudson getting ready for a content contract extension? As the Canadians try to do what they've done consistently, get these players kind of under a salary cap, a comfortable, manageable salary cap. What's that look like for 93 today?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, well, so Ivan can sign an extension due to burning his for the first year of his contract uh last year when he signed in Montreal. He's eligible for an extension as of July 1st, uh 2026. So this summer upcoming. And all eyes are on that extension because there's a little bit more urgency to it than in years past. And the reason for that is because the new rules of the collective bargaining agreement are gonna start kicking in. Uh, some of those rules are starting as of July 1st, like new entry-level uh salaries and and whatnot, and the increase of the minimum salary and all that. But the two biggest things that are gonna be affecting Ivan Demidov and which may push both sides to try and get a deal done before uh the start of the season, is the famous date of September 16th, 2026. And so for the re the the one of the main reasons for that is the eight years sign being able to sign a player to eight years becomes no longer possible as of September 17th, 2026. It'll be capped at seven or six years, seven if you own the player's rights as of the trade deadline, and six if you sign them as a as a free agent, for example. Um, so what does that do? It will, I think you're gonna see a lot of guys that would normally wait it out sign immediately this summer. And I'm I wouldn't be surprised if one of those guys is is Ivan Demido, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Canadians tried to get ahead on that the same way they got ahead on it with Elaine Hudson. I know it dragged on with Lane Hudson, but those talks can you know immediately began as of July 1st, and I don't I don't foresee why things would change with Ivan Demidov because A, the eight-year deal, B, one of the most unique things that some of the bigger market clubs can do for now is front load the contract with signing bonuses. So if you go and look at Lane Hudson's contract, heavily front loaded with signing bonuses, so that the players can those younger players can get a payout immediately, a nice chunk of cash that they can go and invest right away. That has a lot of value for them for a player, and the agents generally tend to look you know tend to appreciate teams that are willing to flex that way. Those two possibilities the eight-year and the heavy front loaded, those options go away as of September 16th.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Stay with us because I I want to talk about Ivan Demidov and kind of what we know, what we expect, what type of agent does he have? Is he someone to hold you to the wall and kind of wait until what they get? And we're gonna we're gonna get to that question and answer in a second. Before though, Marco, if we wind it back to Lane Hudson, as you just mentioned, you know, it it there was there was some drama, there was some tension there. And then ultimately, when we go back and we reflect on the Lane Hudson contract discussion before he ultimately signed, how would you describe that? Was that again an agent holding a hard line? You know, he wanted his client to to max out the dollars before what then what happened? Lane Hudson said, Listen, listen, just put the contract in front of me. I'm ready to sign it, let's just get this over with.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

A little bit of everything, I would say. Um, I think the Canadians stuck to their guns, and I felt like with Lane Hudson's representation, obviously, again, you have you have the reigning Calder winner in front of you, right? They had to jockey as much as they could, but they didn't have the leverage point to ask for the moon because Lane Hudson wasn't offersheet eligible or arbitration eligible. So he had no basically no recourse. He could only sign with the Montreal Canadiens. And are you really going to hold out on your team that's all signing immediately and taking, you know, taking less for the next guy? Right? The Canadians haven't let a player get to, I think the only player they let get to close to RFA status was Cole Caulfield. They let him get within like a month of his RFA status. That's it. And the only reason that happened is because he got injured halfway through the season and they just wanted to see how the you know how the contracts played out. But this is a completely different story. And I feel like the other thing to keep it in consideration is Ivan Demidov is the last member of this core right now that that needs to be signed. Uh, I think the Canadians will reevaluate maybe in two years when it comes to Jacob Fowler. But Demidov is is the last major piece to be signed. And given the fact that the contract status is the way it is, you know, Demidov, like Hudson, ineligible for offer sheets, ineligible for arbitration. So all your projections about what his salary are, I know I saw a lot of people saying he's gonna he should be asking or he should be making more than$10 million. I don't know that that's gonna be a thing, especially with Kent Hughes as a general manager. Like I've spoken to a few agents now that have dealt with him in terms of negotiating new contracts, and it's not easy, it's it's really not uh an easy negotiation. Not because Kent Hughes does it in in bad faith, absolutely not. He's just a really fine negotiator, and he ends up generally getting what he wants in contract negotiations. Um, so you look at Lane Hudson, you know, the Canadians' final offer for Lane Hudson was eight times nine, when everybody was saying that Hudson should be making 11, right? So that just goes to show you what ended up happening. And then, of course, Hudson took a little less off the top, uh, was uh rewarded for it with a very um, I would say advantageous contract structure that uh few teams in the NHL can uh can set up. And so when you look at Ivan Demidoff, Ivan Demedov, if if projections continue, he'll be about 60 points this season, six points less than what Lane Hudson did as a forward, right? Lane Hudson being a defenseman, unlikely to win the Calder. That seems to be locked in for Matthew Schaefer, like well, well done uh by that young man. So yeah, won't have the same accolades as Lane Hudson, we'll have the same limitations as Lane Hudson, and then you have to factor in Demidoff. You know, I one of the one of the things I've I've been hearing a lot is people are worried that Demidoff is going to try to maximize every dollar because of how much he takes in in terms of his you know uh sponsorships, sure, and how he seems open for business and it's about making money. Well, you need to defer the two things, right? At some point, the player also comes in and the player will say, I want to stay, or the player will say, just get this done, or give directives in that regard. His agent is Dan Millstein of Gold Star. Um, you know, I've never seen Dan go over the top when it comes to his contract negotiations. They don't tend to drag these on. It's either they sign a bridge deal like we saw with Kucharov, or they sign those, he signs an eight-year deal. Like there seems to be very little in the middle, like Vasilevsky, eight-year deal. Mikhail Sergachev, eight-year deal. Um, they went with bridge mainly in Tampa Bay because Tampa Bay was so tight to the salary cap structure. And but when it came time to having to pay those guys out, those were still team-friendly deals in at the moment, right? So I do I think that Demidov will could consider a bridge. Yes, I think that's a possibility, but I think given the the cap structure changes as of September 16th, I think there may be a push for a longer-term deal in the eight range and somewhere in the 8.5 to 9.5 million range. I think that's ultimately for me. If I had to make a guess, I think that's where it lands. I know hot take, I give you a$1 million range. But if I'm Kent Hughes, you know, trying to get, I don't, there's no way, unless he pops off like crazy. There's no way that if a contract is signed this summer, that Ivan Demidov is going to make more than$10 million.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Lane Hudson in an 8.85 to talk about the you know, the the discussion of what was offered, what the max deal was. He's a shade under that. And I wonder how much are you a believer of because I I think I'm a strong believer of peer pressure, and it's a balancing edge. The separation of the separation of business and the separation of team camaraderie, and how tight this group is, and the consistent pattern of Coffield, Suzuki, Slavkowski, Matheson left money on the table. You we can debate uh how much money Lane Hudson left on the table, but the commonality is they all got deals done, and now enters the equation and the question of peer pressure. Hey, we all did it, we're all put we're all pulling together at the same goal for the same goal, and we arguably all left a few dollars on the table. That's gonna be an interesting position if Demidov, not saying he will, but if that's the path they want to take to play hardball, puts people in a in a compromising position a little bit. So, how much of a buyer of peer pressure and how much of that applies in this? Do you believe in?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, I mean, I think it certainly applies. If when you look at the way that this team is built, it's not simply the structure of the salary, but it's also the personalities in the room and getting guys together. I think Kent Hughes could also utilize the relationship that they've fostered with Ivan Demidov uh as well in in these contract negotiations and the fact that he stays in Montreal and he and he stays with the fans and he goes to outdoor rinks. He's like he's really acclimated himself to Montreal. And now that the team is about to take off, like do you really want to jeopardize that? So I have a I have a funny feeling that this won't be a this won't be as out there of a contract negotiation. It'll probably come out of nowhere that this extension at some point between July 1st and the start of the season. I I feel um I just you know Dan Milestein always does right by his clients, but I've never seen any of his contract negotiations get drawn out into the public. So I'm not necessarily worried about that either. Um, you know, when I think of contract comparables, I look at uh a guy like Lucas Raymond, for example. I think that's a good comparable. He signed eight times eight in uh September of 2024. So this is before we knew where the salary cap was going. You factor in the bump from the where the cap is going and whatnot, you know, you can make the projection of about eight years times eight point five, eight point seven five, eight times nine could be an easy could, you know, it makes a ton of sense. Makes a ton of sense, and I think that that's where that's the range where you're gonna see uh Demidov get to if he signs an eight-year deal, because the Canadians have strong belief that he is going to be one of those top-end franchise type forwards, but at the same time, because he's got only one year of experience, because he's not uh eligible for offer sheets, because he's not eligible for um any form of uh arbitration, you are now you hold all the cards as the team. And I think that's where Kent Hughes does his best work, respectfully towards the player and gets them into their vision of this that salary structure. Because I think Demidov, like Hudson, next year is going to take a step up and be close to a point per game player for the Montreal Canadians, especially if they're able to execute uh some of the the some of the work that they wanted to do prior to the trade deadline. If they're able to circle back on that and execute this summer, uh the Canadians will be an even deeper team next year. And I feel like having making sure that Demidov is signed before that, so that you don't have to deal with a larger sample size and negotiation is going to be a priority of Kent Hughes. And that's why we may see them get closer to the 9 million range. I still think that if it were, if if I were a fly in the room, they would rather be in the eights, like the high eights over eight years. But you know, we'll see, we'll see what ends up happening between those two clans. I'm not expecting a very uh drawn out or you know, negative or media focused negotiation like we saw with Lane Hudson.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Demudov is such a marketable start to your point, all right? About you know, getting restaurant deals, getting car deals, uh launching. I was gonna bring that line, right? Uh holding line in the rookie season. I mean, that's just the tip of the iceberg for a charismatic but good-looking young guy who's who's very comfortable. And the one thing I'm reminded of, you know, we go back and you talk about I'll always remember this line, and I occasionally bring it up. He wants the smoke. And I guess I wonder about in an alternate world where the Montreal Canadians, you know, he becomes the highest paid player on the team if he gets this contract between July and September, right? He gets that$10 million plus contract. I mean, I'm not saying it will, but what if it does?

SPEAKER_01 15:56

I'd be shocked.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

That'd be to be honest with you. You know, you know what I mean? Like, we've seen players before that get big salaries that underperform and how they're treated.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

That's it. And I think that there's a little, there's a like if Lane Hudson didn't crack 10 million, I don't think that Ivan Demidoff is gonna crack 10 million. And I think the Canadians, by getting uh Lane Hudson to sign to 8.85, it's like no matter how good you are, how can you negotiate higher than what Lane Hudson got? That's what it's gonna do. Obviously, I think Demidoff is gonna be like, hey, you know, he was younger uh and wasn't playing with a bona fide number two center. Imagine what he could have done from a points perspective if he played on the top line. Like there are arguments that are gonna be made on Demidoff's side for sure. One thing I will say, and I know this for a fact, when a player extends with the Montreal Canadians long term, the contract is only the tip of the iceberg. The Canadians then open up the doors to all their sponsorship contacts, and those are that's kind of like an unspoken thing. Whereas once the deal is signed and they're locked in and there's there's consistency there, then the sponsors, the big sponsors come, right? Like you're gonna be getting a lot of bigger name brands that are gonna be seeking you out the same way that they sought out Lane Hudson after the he signed his extension. Well, now you're you're gonna start seeing it. That's an option for real when it comes to Ivan Demidov. And I think they've started, but it can get even bigger. And I feel like that's another aspect of this negotiation that may speak to his camp and and the way they go about managing his assets that we perhaps don't take into consideration when we look at contract comparables because you look at other young players that were in the 50 to 60 range. Again, I talked about Lucas Raymond. Uh, Urai Slavkovsky is a play, is is a low-end contract comparable in that regard. Uh, you look at uh Cole Caulfield, he was on pace for like 40 goals when he signed his contract prior to his injury. You look at all these other players, like Alexei Lafreniere signs for 7.4. All these guys signed in the mid to low range, and even with the salary cap going up, it'll probably be in between the 8.5 to 9.5, probably closer to 8.5 to 9, my honest opinion. Um, but then you have all the extras that you don't normally get in a regular market. Montreal is very unique to that. The amount of sponsorship deals that you can get can go, you know, in the millions. And I think that's where the value would come in, where Demidov negotiates with the Canadians in a way where he gets locked in long term at a reasonable rate, but then is able to go and get a lot of the funds that maybe he would have gotten if he really pushed for every penny, uh, he would be able to get it on the side through sponsorship deals.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Give me that academia of Mike Sharona kind of new uh new TV commercial down the road.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Oh, good lord. Um, what I I think again, as of right now, I have no information on this, and we'll see how things go. But I wouldn't be shocked if it was in the same range as Lane Hudson, somewhere in the high eights over eight years, yeah. As it continues, if not, yeah, and if there is some sort of negotiation push, maybe you know, in the nine to nine point five range, but knowing Kent Hughes, it'll take uh they'll have to fight inch, tooth, and nail to get there. Uh, would be uh gold star and and agent Dan Millstein.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

I mean, there's just such a consistent pattern. Uh, sunny days are here with the Canadians core and now looking to join that uh for the foreseeable future. Number 93, but number one in your heart, Sivan Demidov. Number one in your heart, Marco D'Amico. I'm Sean Star. Uh, thanks so much for being with us. Uh, don't forget, uh, we're here all week for daily HABS content on your number one Montreal Canadians YouTube show, The Star and Demico show. Marco, thanks as always, brother, and we'll see you this week.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Have a great day, everybody.