Ivan Demidov recovers from injury more slowly than he thought

Since yesterday, the St. Petersburg SKA development camp has been underway in Russia. In Montreal, this is of particular interest, as Ivan Demidov, the club’s first-round pick, belongs to SKA.

And since he’s been the club’s top prospect for quite some time, he’s attracting a ton of attention.

That said, Demidov is conspicuous by his absence from the team’s videos. Nicolas Cloutier (TVA Sports), who spoke to the kid‘s agent, reported earlier today that it was due to injury.

The injury in question, which is to his ankle, is nothing new. He suffered it while his team was in the finals last year… but we weren’t talking about a very long-term injury.

His 2024-25 season wasn’t threatened, let’s say.

However, when he was drafted, Demidov talked about his ankle and said he believed he could be back on the ice “in a week”, or a little later.

He said this on June 28… and now, on July 15 (17 days later), he’s still sidelined.

It’s debatable whether this is an abuse of caution, though. Risking aggravating an injury at the development camp would have been stupid, after all.

On the other hand, seeing that it’s been over two weeks when he was talking about a week isn’t necessarily ideal either. Once again, it’s early to worry… but it’s legitimate to wonder. We know that the youngster’s skating style isn’t universally appreciated, and we have to wonder if it could have weakened his ankles.

There’s no indication that he’s suffered a setback in his recovery, other than the fact that he’s not back yet. And I wonder if the Habs, who drafted him knowing he was injured, would like to be able to do their medical evaluation of the youngster right now seeing this little delay in recovery.

Obviously, this is a subject that will continue to attract attention in Montreal. After all, when the team’s top prospect is sidelined, there’s going to be a lot of talk.

It’s perhaps less worrying than Cayden Lindstrom’s herniated disc would have been… but it’s still something to keep an eye on.

Overtime

– Well done.

Been working for the past 3 years at helping Pancreatic Cancer Canada raise funds. @theLSHL is back this summer with some summer hockey in benefit of the foundation.

The pros in the Mtl area (NHL-AHL-PWHL-NCAA) come together to play 3 on 3 to train and get ready for the next…

– Zach Fucale (@Fucale31) July 15, 2024