On Wednesday, SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg spoke with a Russian outlet about how there was a joint development plan for Ivan Demidov. That may sound good in theory but the reality is likely to be different.
Speaking with Match TV’s Pavel Lysenkov, Rotenberg indicated that he had a lengthy conversation (around 90 minutes) with Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes, and Vincent Lecavalier, among others and together, they had come up with a joint development plan. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that they’re having the discussion but SKA is under no obligation whatsoever to follow that plan.
From their point of view, they’re going to do what’s best for SKA, as they should. Demidov is in an organization with a veteran-laden group and a win-now mandate. These are not elements that are typically conducive to the development of young players.
The KHL has two junior development slots, one for someone up to 20 years old and one for up to 19 years old; Demidov could fit in either one. In theory, the idea makes sense as it’s a way to get quality young talent some exposure at the top level. But those players are often the 19th and 20th skaters on the team and playing time is understandably hard to come by. This is what happened to him in his brief stint with St. Petersburg last season where Demidov averaged all of 7:29 per game. Several of the other ‘development players’ came in even lower.
With Demidov having one year left on his contract and what appears to be a stated desire to come to North America after that, there isn’t much incentive for Rotenberg and SKA to invest a whole lot in developing Demidov. Why put the time in with a player when you strongly suspect he’s leaving in a few months?
It’s all well and good to communicate with the Canadiens; building any sort of working relationship is great. If it sets up a line of communication for any in-season discussion, even better. Despite my tone in this column, I like that they’ve done this.
But SKA isn’t going to prioritize Montreal’s best interests with Demidov next season, nor should they. They’re going to prioritize winning first and foremost; it’d be great if Demidov were a part of that but if he’s not, it’s not as if they will be thinking ‘hey, we still need to do XYZ to satisfy Montreal’.
If I had to guess what the conversation was about, some of it likely discussed elements of Demidov’s game that the Canadiens would like to see the coaching staff work with him on. What can SKA’s coaching staff maybe emphasize a little more in practice with him? I’m sure they weighed in with what type of role they’d like Demidov to have but again, St. Petersburg is under no obligation to actually play him in it.
The other discussion I think they might have had was trying to reach an understanding of what would happen if Demidov winds up playing seven minutes a night again for any sort of extended stretch. That certainly isn’t the most ideal for development but neither is going back to the junior level as he did last season.
In this scenario, there are two options. He could go to the second-tier VHL; think of that as an AHL equivalent. It’s pro hockey instead of junior so it’s a level up but it’s not the top level of competition. The other is a move to another KHL team as SKA did with Matvei Michkov the last two seasons. (Technically, this would be a trade, not a loan since Demidov can’t be loaned as he’s in the final year of his contract.) That would allow Demidov a chance to play a bigger role at the better level.
But again, while that’s good for Montreal, that’s not necessarily good for SKA unless they’re getting another player that fills a need back as part of that trade. If that option isn’t there, they can simply just ride it out and move on at the end of April. Moving him elsewhere just to be nice and let him play more isn’t something they have to do.
It’s great to see that the two sides had an extended conversation. I’m hopeful that SKA will be able to at least accommodate parts of it. But I’d stop short of calling it a joint development plan as Rotenberg suggested. I liken it more to a best-case scenario. There aren’t many of those for KHL development players but here’s hoping Demidov is one of the outliers that bucks that trend and that their best-case scenario largely comes to fruition.