Ivan Demidov on the first line: It’s time to start thinking about it

Marc-Olivier Cook
Ivan Demidov on the first line: It’s time to start thinking about it
Credit: Getty Images

With 43 points (11 goals) in 52 games, Ivan Demidov is having a great rookie season.

The young Canadiens player is demonstrating his potential and proving that he can become one of the NHL's top players in the near future. All this while playing on the second line, mind you.

Seeing him progress like this, it's logical to wonder if it's time to give him an opportunity to prove himself on the first line alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

After all, Suz and Cole lost their winger, Juraj Slafkovsky, and have been trying different things since then. Alexandre Texier had his chance, but he started to slow down in recent days—and he was also injured.

Bringing in Demidov to try to give Caufield and Suzuki a boost isn't a bad idea. It's an idea worth discussing, in fact… and Éric Bélanger was right to bring it up yesterday on Tony Marinaro's Sick Podcast.

Obviously, removing Ivan Demidov could hurt Oliver Kapanen and Juraj Slafkovsky.

But maybe it would be good to shake things up a bit, because Kapanen is currently going through his worst slump of the season. He hasn't scored a point in his last six games and is starting to slow down…

And the idea of bringing Demidov onto the first line makes sense because he may be the only one who can fill that role properly (along with Juraj Slafkovsky). Zachary Bolduc had a few tries and it didn't work out…

The Kirby Dach experiment was never a resounding success on the first unit…

And I don't see Patrik Laine playing on the first line—even though he was rotating with the guys on the first line yesterday in practice. 

So we agree that it's pretty thin at that level. And that's why Ivan Demidov's name makes sense when you think of a guy to put on the first line with Suzuki and Caufield.

We could think of Slaf because we know it works. But he's been so good since he's been given the role of leading his own line…


Overtime

– Yeah.

– That's normal.

– Happy birthday!

– Enjoy the read.

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