Canadiens Daily
Habs Daily: Demidov A Top Prospect, Atlantic Division Lessons
Here are the Montreal Canadiens news items, highlights, and stories you may have missed yesterday.
Montreal Canadiens News
The Montreal Canadiens are at a crucial point in their rebuild, and they could learn from the mistakes of their rivals on what to avoid over the next year. Between the Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators and, up until recently, the Florida Panthers, the Atlantic Division has been the most imbalanced division in the NHL; holding substantially long playoff droughts during the last 15 years. [Key Mistake Made By Canadiens’ Rivals That Must Be Avoided]
Ivan Demidov was rated as one of the top prospects in the KHL, which isn’t all that surprising since he’s considered one of the top prospects in the entire hockey landscape. He received the most first-place votes from a group of 60 Russian sports journalists, but finished behind Philadelphia Flyers prospect Matvei Michkov for the top spot. Again, that’s not particularly surprising. Michkov is very talented, and more importantly, he’s a year older than his Russian counterpart. Regardless of the final ranking, Habs fans are unlikely to protest given it’s incredibly rare that a Canadiens prospect is considered one of the most offensively talented players outside the NHL.
In Sport-Express media awards news …#LetsGoFlyers Matvei Michkov (114 pts) edges out #GoHabsGo prospect Ivan Demidov (100 pts) as Best U20 player in Russia.
A total of 60 people took part in the survey – all leading reporters, commentators and bloggers of Russia. pic.twitter.com/K9YhQObQsy
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) August 8, 2024
Here’s the legally mandated Demidov highlight following a mention of his name in the Habs Daily.
We mentioned Demidov is getting his fair share of attention from the KHL yesterday, and that hype Train Keeps A-Rollin‘.
Work
Smile
Demidov#KHLPreseason pic.twitter.com/CZe7Lgy7BS— KHL (@khl_eng) August 8, 2024
Speaking of the Demidov, he did hit the ice on August 6, a very encouraging sign that his lower-body injury is in the rearview mirror, but he was not part of the SKA Saint Petersburg players who participated in a scrimmage on Thursday.
Looks like Ivan Demidov didn’t participate today in the SKA intrasquad scrimmage game. pic.twitter.com/uTXhN3brXW
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) August 8, 2024
Alex Newhook and friends were in St-John’s to raise money for very good causes.
Alex Newhook, Justin Barron, Jayden Struble & Josh Anderson at Newhook’s inaugural charity golf tournament in St. John’s, Newfoundland ⛳️
They raised over $113,000 for three different charities including a cancer foundation & a women’s shelter ❤️ pic.twitter.com/RD2YPtgf9T
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) August 8, 2024
National Hockey Now Network
It’s not often a fourth-round pick from two years ago is the featured attraction at a development camp featuring a pair of first-round picks and a handful of second-round picks who could soon lace up skates in the NHL. Yet that was the scene in early July at the Pittsburgh Penguins Development Camp as they apparently went beyond the norm to get goalie prospect Sergei Murashov out of Russia to attend. [Pittsburgh Penguins]
Mikhail Gulyayev, who the Avalanche selected in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft, is very much on the smaller side. Skating forward, backwards, in and out of transitions, he makes everything look completely effortless. If the Avalanche could get him over to the AHL, they might be able to fast track him to the NHL. [Colorado Avalanche]
Philadelphia Flyers prospects showed up and showed out at the World Junior Summer Showcase this past week, stealing the show at this year’s annual camp in Plymouth, Michigan, from July 26 all the way through Aug. 3. [Philadelphia Flyers]