Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils

Ivan Demidov will likely play for Montreal on Monday

Marco D’Amico of RG Media: After breaking the story on Tuesday of Ivan Demidov signing with the Montreal Canadiens, D’Amico is reporting that the belief is that the young Russian and fifth overall pick from the 2024 NHL Draft will debut against the Chicago Blackhawks.

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The whole process took a long time for Demidov to get out of his contract with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL along with getting a work visa for the NHL. He will be joining the team in Toronto on Friday. However, he will not play right away. Again the belief is Monday against a team that had a chance to draft him.

Expectations are high for the Canadiens young prospect, but as the Canadiens make their push to the playoffs they are adding a dynamic weapon that was excited to come over to play for Montreal. He is the one that intiated the whole process and is ready to show he can play in the NHL.

New Jersey Devils will add Arseni Gritsyuk next season

Daria Tuboltseva of RG Media: Ivan Demidov of the Montreal Canadiens and Alexander Nikishin of the Carolina Hurricanes are not the only members of SKA St. Petersburg heading to the NHL. As Tuboltseva writes, the New Jersey Devils will have their Russian prospect from SKA Arensi Gritsyuk joining them.

As she writes, the Devils will sign Gritsyuk to a one-year entry level deal for the 2025-26 and it will be a two-way deal so he can play in the AHL. The Devils allowed him to develop in Russia for the past six years and now will have time to develop in North America.

During his trade deadline press conference GM Tom Fitzgerald was asked about Gritsyuk and his goal was to get him over to North America.

“That’s what we’re trying to do right now,” Fitzgerald told the media. “We’re trying to get him under contract right now. That’s the goal, to get him over here and give him a chance to show us what he can do.”

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Now, Gritsyuk will be over in New Jersey but the Devils are utitilizing the cap space the right way. Instead burning his ELC this season and having to renegotiate a new deal for next season, the contract starts next season.

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