There’s no doubt about it, top Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov is dealing with a frustrating situation in the KHL.
Even if he’s SKA Saint Petersburg’s leading scorer, the talented 19-year-old forward has been treated as a tweener by his head coach, Roman Rotenberg. It’s not entirely surprising, as Rotenberg has shown clear signs of inexperience and insecurity since he was given the coaching position despite his lack of professional hockey experience
It’s not an ideal situation for any player, but at the very least, the fact that Demidov is dealing with unreasonable adversity now will help him if legitimate adversity comes into play once he makes his way to Montreal.
Ivan Demidov Says A Lot By Not Saying Much
The maturity displayed by Demidov has been noteworthy, and is part of the reason why the Canadiens drafted him in the first place. But even if his maturity goes beyond his years, it’s quite clear the frustrating situation is starting to weigh heavily on his mind.
A pre-game interview with Demidov on Thursday was quite telling. The young man was not willing to throw his coach under the bus, however, he’s also not going to sugar-coat the unreasonable decisions made by Rotenberg by pretending he’s happy with his usage.
Before we discuss the interview, I’d like to thank Twitter user @Uggg_uggg for clipping the video. We should also note that the translation does seem to be accurate according to some of my colleagues who speak Russian. Their knowledge goes well beyond my own, which is limited to “Da, Da Kanada, Nyet, Nyet Soviet”, the famous chant heard during Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series between the Soviet Union and Canada. With that in mind, you can clearly heart Demidov say “Nyet” in the first answer, lining up perfectly with the provided translation.
There’s no doubt about it, top Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov is dealing with a frustrating situation in the KHL