July 1st was the first day that the Habs could sign Ivan Demidov to a contract extension. They’ve done just that as his agent announced that Demidov and the Canadiens are in agreement on an eight-year deal.
The contract will make him the highest-paid forward on the team checking in at a $9.15 million AAV. That’s a little below Noah Dobson for the top-paid player while it checks in a little above Lane Hutson ($8.85 million). According to PuckPedia, the contract breaks down as follows.
2027-28: $11.5 M signing bonus, $1 M salary
2028-29: $11.5 M signing bonus, $1 M salary
2029-30: $9.5 M signing bonus, $1 M salary
2030-31: $6.7 M signing bonus, $1 M salary
2031-32: $6.3 M signing bonus, $1.2 M salary
2032-33: $6.3 M signing bonus, $1.2 M salary
2033-34: $5.8 M signing bonus, $1.7 M salary
2034-35: $7.5 M salary
Demidov will have a 10-team no-trade clause in the final three seasons of the contract. As those are the only UFA-eligible years, they are the only seasons that he’s eligible to have trade protection.
Demidov was the fifth-overall pick back in 2024 and made the jump to the NHL soon after, joining Montreal late in the 2024-25 campaign. He played in seven games between the regular season and playoffs, allowing him to burn a year of his entry-level contract but not accrue a season of service time toward true RFA eligibility. Had he remained unsigned into next summer, he wouldn’t have been eligible for an offer sheet. That likely played at least a small role in this contract.
Last season was his first full campaign in the NHL level and it was certainly a promising one. He led all rookies in points with 62, thanks to 19 goals and 43 assists in 82 games. However, that wasn’t enough to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie thanks to Matthew Schaefer’s dominant rookie year with the Islanders, one that saw him be the unanimous winner of the award. Demidov was a little quieter in the playoffs but still managed nine points in 19 games.
Demidov still has one year left on his rookie contract which will be this season so this extension has no bearing on their cap situation heading into free agency. Effectively, the big projected increase to the cap has been spent on him, however, similar to this summer’s jump being spent on Hutson ahead of time. By getting this deal done before mid-September, they were able to get the eighth year. Had that not been the case, the maximum term would have been seven years.
Montreal’s core group is now locked up for the long haul. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Demidov are all signed through at least the 2029-30 season (Suzuki’s contract is up at that time). Defensively, Hutson, Noah Dobson, and even Kaiden Guhle and Mike Matheson, are all locked up through 2030-31.
It remains to be seen if the Habs can add to their core roster this offseason. But the key parts of this group aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.