New five-year contract for Ivan Demidov (and Lane Hutson)

Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov are key players for the Canadiens. When the Habs win the Stanley Cup (and it's likely to happen), these guys will have played a big part.

Whenever these two guys do something, it grabs people's attention.

And it doesn't have to be something related to hockey. For example? The fact that they partnered with the site billets.ca certainly caught people's attention.

On Wednesday afternoon, my colleague Maxime Truman posted a video on X (which had already been shared by billets.ca) of the two young men talking about the company.

The video isn't great quality and looks like it was generated by AI… but the message is clear: the two guys are raving about the product.

The resale site https://t.co/e8di0fjZwG posted this video a few hours ago (in collaboration with Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov).

Of course, you immediately think it's an April Fool's prank…

But I'm pretty sure that if it were, Hutson and Demidov's agents—… pic.twitter.com/PTV1EZdTFW

— Maxime Truman (@MaximeTruman) April 1, 2026

You might think it's an April Fool's joke… but it's not. According to our sources, the two stars have signed a five-year partnership agreement to represent billets.ca moving forward.

We're talking about a site that isn't affiliated with the NHL. If you go to the Canadiens' website to buy tickets, this isn't the platform you'll end up on.

We know that Lane Hutson recently signed an eight-year contract with the Canadiens, but Demidov hasn't reached the stage of signing a second contract with the Habs yet. Still, he's putting down a bit more of a root in Montreal—a city he loves—with this kind of deal.

I know that doesn't mean everything, and I know Demidov will be a restricted free agent for many more years, which will limit his team options… but it's still something worth noting. Right?

Extension

Demidov is thus adding another commercial partnership to his portfolio. After his famous jerseys, Prime Group, Warrior, and Ashton, here he is tied to yet another company.

Is he doing this to make as much money as possible elsewhere to compensate and sign with the Canadiens at a “discount”? Or does this show us once again that he's all about the money and that he's going to squeeze every penny he can out of Geoff Molson? Who knows.