Hockey

Ivan Demidov paid (out of his own pocket) for ice time this summer
Marc-Olivier Cook
Ivan Demidov paid (out of his own pocket) for ice time this summer
Credit: Things are looking up for Ivan Demidov these days.

Ivan Demidov's love of the game is well known.

After all, it's easy to see that he loves the game when he spends so much time on the ice. He's always one of the first on the ice for the Canadiens' practices… and he's always one of the last off the ice, too.

He always wants to improve, and he works hard to make it happen. But… his level of dedication is even bigger than that.

Tony Marinaro, on the Stanley25 podcast, talked to JT about this: this summer, Demidov was taking money out of his own pocket to practice as much as possible.

He paid for ice time to skate, and that just shows how much he wants to be better. The kid knows he's got talent… but he also knows that it's through hard work that he'll reach his full potential.

And if I were a member of the Canadiens organization, I'd be really pleased to see the kid's work ethic.

In his comments, Tony recalls that Demidov decided not to return to Russia this summer because it might have forced him to complete his military service.

But we knew that.

What's special is to learn that the Russian made the decision to pour money out of his own pocket to be able to practice even more. Remember: Ivan Demidov doesn't earn $92 million a season. And God knows, ice time in Quebec arenas is expensive…

It's always nice to see a youngster with the right mentality. And it's even more pleasing to see a talented youngster like Ivan Demidov doing everything he can to spend as much time as possible on the ice… because it shows that he wants to push himself to improve.

It's hard not to like him, we agree. Especially when you hear stories like this…


Overtime

– I can't wait.

– He's special, him (hehe).

– There's action in the waivers.

– Good point.

– I'm impressed.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!