Ivan Demidov misses Canadiens practice after injury: here's what we know

Ivan Demidov wasn't on the ice for the Canadiens at training camp this morning in Brossard. That almost never happens.

The team called it a therapy day. Stu Cowan put it plainly, describing it as a very rare day off the ice for the 20-year-old right winger.

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Then Patrick Friolet of RDS added the detail that made Montreal fans lean in. Demidov took a shot off his right foot during Monday's game against Ottawa.

"Ivan Demidov was absent from today's practice in Brossard. He is undergoing treatment today.

Note that he was hit by a shot on his right foot during Monday's game."

- Patrick Friolet, RDS

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Nobody has officially connected the two. The Canadiens are sticking with the treatment-day label, and nothing more specific has come from the team.

But the question writes itself. Why does a player who rarely misses a skate suddenly need a day on the table, two days after a puck found his foot?

The Canadiens beat the Senators 3-2 in that Monday game, moving to 3-0-0 in the preseason. The foot is the only blemish on an otherwise clean week.

The Toronto opener puts a clock on Demidov's right foot

The stakes go well beyond a September skate. Demidov is coming off a full 82-game rookie season that produced 62 points.

Forty-three of those were assists. Martin St-Louis dressed him every single night, and the offense increasingly bent toward whatever the kid saw with the puck on his stick.

He added 9 points in 19 playoff games last spring. That's real postseason usage for a player who was drafted fifth overall in 2024.

Then there's the money. His current $940,833 cap hit runs through 2026-27.

After that, Kent Hughes has him locked in at $9,150,000 a year through 2034-35. You don't take chances with an investment that size over a preseason bruise.

Think of it like a small chip in a windshield in September. Fix it now, or watch the crack spread across the whole glass by November.

So here's the call. St-Louis should keep him out of Saturday's preseason road game in Ottawa if there's even a sliver of doubt.

The regular season opens Tuesday in Toronto. The Canadiens already edged the Maple Leafs 4-3 last Saturday, but exhibition wins don't show up in the standings.

After that comes a stop in Pittsburgh, then a four-game homestand against Carolina, Nashville, Detroit and Buffalo. That's a lot of hockey to play on one sore foot.

The Canadiens will insist this is nothing. Maybe it is. But if Demidov misses another practice this week, nobody in Montreal will buy the therapy-day explanation a second time.

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