This just revealed a whole lot for Montreal...

We have some wild updates coming out of the Montreal Canadiens camp today. You thought Ivan Dimitrov would be back soon. Well, not quite. Kent Hughes spoke out about the situation, and so did his agent Dan Milstein. But Milstein also dropped a very interesting update on the Habs' cap space in the future, even teasing another massive move. And finally, taking a look ahead, when Demi is back at the Habs' power play, and exactly the key that the Habs need to fix the struggling power play, and we have the numbers to back it up wholly. Stick with us for all of that on this episode of Habs Digest. And please stick with the voice that is currently failing. A little bit of a deeper, gravelly voice today, you know. But we have positive news. It doesn't quite feel like it, but we do. And we're going to start with the power play unit. Because we know. I don't need to tell you guys that the Habs power play has been subpar this year. I think that's fair to say. I don't think anyone would necessarily disagree with that. Taking a look at the special teams we currently land. We were up from 32nd, which is good. We're up to 30th. 14th in the penalty kill, but you can see the most power play points by any player is Lane Hudson, Jesse. But what we know is that the power play last year with Ivan Dimitrov was so much better. We have other numbers to dive into, including the rate stats, but 20 power play points last year, 77th in the NHL. He was fifth in terms of his team in power play ice time per game at three minutes. I mean, there's a lot of numbers we can dive into, but ultimately this to me, like. The fact that Montreal has won so many games, especially like we haven't lost in regulation in nine straight and we still have him coming back. It's honestly insane to look at what this power play could be in just like a week or two. It really speaks to the growth and the maturity of this team for the Montreal Canadiens to be doing what they're doing right now with basically their power play close to 50% of its efficiency from last year here. So we know this team right now, the Montreal Canadiens are in a nine-game point streak right now. They're not getting enough hype right now for how good they're playing. Like and subscribe to Habs Digest. You know we're going to bring that Montreal Canadiens hype. They deserve more of it. We're talking to you, Sportsnet. No, we're not throwing a throw of shade here. But again, they are playing so well without the power play performing as well as they could. And again, we know that that's... Ivan Dimitrov is just such a big part of that. You've got to feel like when that becomes a weapon again, that that is just going to be such a huge part of it. Of course, he has just so much talent in the offensive zone, so creative, but we know it really comes down to, again, getting that net front presence... I'm going to look at Juraj Slafkovsky, another player that's really heating up. You know, last year, he was really able to cook on the power play. Now, we really expect him to get back to those ways really soon. I think you put Slav and you put Deminov together, combined with Nick Suzuki, who obviously, by him being back, is going to help improve this in a really big way. We're just here to say that the power play is going to come back. Once they have that tool in their arsenal here, it's going to make them even more formidable. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and like you said, we're operating at basically half efficiency right now. And if we do take a look at last year, Slaf at 28 power play points, Suzuki, 43 of them. And overall, if we just take a look at last year's units, the top unit was one that we're all familiar with, Suzuki, Slafkovsky, Caulfield, Demidov, and Hudson. They played 184 minutes in the power play together. They scored at about 10.79 goals per 60. And this year, so far, total, you can see at the bottom, 4.69. And we've had a lot of different units. Suzuki, Kreider, Slav, Caulfield, Hudson was the first unit we tried I, when Demi went out, They didn't score a goal in 18 minutes at all. We've switched it up since then. Trying Dobson, trying Bolduc. But you're right. There is just one key, and it's Ivan Demidov. So leave some thoughts on all that down below. But we have some other crazy stuff to talk about on the Demi front, and it comes from Agent Dan Milstein. He says, first of all, the Habs have room for two superstars. Look, we'll get to that in just a moment. But I want to just highlight, I think you guys have probably seen this, saying Ivan wanted to get a deal done. His instruction to me was that he wants to win for the next eight or nine years. And if presented with the same opportunity again, He would still take that same deal. So, great stuff, all in all. And he did also say that, like, Demi had, like, a fractured ankle and it was worse than they thought. He might be out for a few more weeks. We'll get into what Kent Hughes had to say on the matter later. But also, Dan Milstein represents a lot of powerful people. We know the ties with Kucherov, all this stuff. He also had this to say, which I found interesting. They had a great thing going in Montreal. Perhaps there's room for one or two more superstars with the structure of contracts that they have. And so winning's the most important thing. And then he immediately went, no, no, no, don't read into that. Don't read into that. But all the same, Jesse, he's not wrong. He's a guy who knows a lot. Some people are wondering if he's just using the Habs as leverage to maybe get some higher bids from other teams. But regardless, everything we're hearing, like everything we're hearing about the Habs in general across the whole NHL has been, I feel like nothing but positive. And this just continues to reinforce that. These comments from Dan Milstein are very encouraging because he is connected and he's not just talking about, again, that the Montreal Canadiens will have the cap space. He's really, truly speaking, Josh, to the sentiment around the league from superstar players of being open to coming again. He's not just talking about one of them. He's talking about two of them. So we know it's going to come. We're just hoping that Nikita Kucherov somehow makes it to free agency. But that being said, we know the right player is going to come to us. The players that truly want to win at the end of the day, and it seems redundant to the players that you win with that truly are coming for that winning environment here. I think with a lot of players, even like a Dylan Larkin, when it does veer into politics in a certain sense, I think you do lose a lot of fans in that way. So again, we're going to get the right players, attract the right players for our culture and I think that's all going to be a win in the end. Yeah, like the Larkin stuff, we talked about it. Someday, he's going to get traded and he's going to play well for his new team and everyone's going to eventually in a few years forget about all this. Like, oh, Larkin, Right, he was to Red Wings. They had that thing, but look how good he is now. The thing is, he's had the chance to expand the list. He didn't include Montreal. It's like, if he was to come here, it'd be begrudgingly anyway. Kucherov's an interesting one. We do have fan comments talking about Kucherov, though. We had this one from Delta saying, not sure I'd want him with the attitude and what happened after 2021. Plus, the Lightning are probably going to ask for Slav for Demidov. Let's keep our talent here, which is why you mentioned, and I think I would agree, I'd rather wait till free agency for something like that. But regardless, what Dan Milstein said is very true. He's very well connected. He has a lot of good players. Um, you know, that he's an agent for, and to say this, they have room for one or two more superstars. You know, he knows the situation well, so we'll have to wait and see what he does with his clients. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to Kent Hughes as well. And he gives some pretty big updates today. Now, not so much on signings, but more in the Demidov situation. And it gives a lot more clarity to what's going on because it's felt like. We've been, like, just looking at a brick wall. Like, we haven't heard much. Like, there's been silence. Like, an iron curtain between us and the Habs front office in terms of what's going on. But, actually, I have a full summary here, but we'll get to this. So, Eric Engels tweeted this out. There's a great summary. An update on Ivan Demidov and the Canadiens' policy. Here is a little Demi update for you. That's a picture of Jake Evans. Demi's in this picture. He's off to the side. Whatever. No setbacks. He skated twice this week, as we saw in the intro video you guys probably saw. Two to four weeks was always approximate. More than four weeks in, healing is a moving target. Not expected out much longer, but still no exact date. But he also did say that he's only going to offer updates if there's a setback or if another injury occurs or if a player will miss far more time than expected. And ultimately, Jesse, what he had to say is that he needs to protect our players. That's the primary responsibility. Respect the privacy they request of us. So all that said, what does that mean for Demi? Well, I wouldn't say it's exactly encouraging. With this combined with Dan Milstein, I would anticipate minimum a week. I was so, I was ready. I was saying Monday, oh yes, that he'll go Saturday against the Leafs. I'm excited. Probably not. But all the same, Jesse, the way this team's rolling, even without the power plays we mentioned that he's going to be a key for, the team's going to have some huge decisions to make with who to take out. Here's a look at the lineup with Demi in there. Kapanen's out in this version of the lineup, which is not a guarantee either, but all the same, it's good that we're finally getting some kind of update on him and we know he'll be back sooner rather than later. And the reason we're so excited to see him back is that he was actually a point per game in his two games before the injury, but it's more than just that, Josh. It was how quick... Dynamic, stronger on his skates than he was looking in this offseason. We know Ivan Demidov is somebody who eats, breathes, and lives hockey at the rink every single day. And he was truly showing in the offseason. Visibly, we could see him coming into the season just looking that much quicker. You really combine that, again, with just the amazing hands that he has. And again, that's probably the one missing link in his game right now. So again, for that reason, we want to make sure that he's healing. properly and can really get back to those dynamic skating ways which has allowed him to be so successful early on in the season. The silver lining in all this Josh though is again with Nick Suzuki again being out, Ivan Demidov 5-0-1 during Nick Suzuki's departure. Again we just need to give a shout out to Martin St-Louis. I think it's only right how well the team has performed in the absence of such star players like this. We have to say it's a team Falling back on the system, on the collective play. Again, when you're missing such key players, it truly comes down to some of the fundamentals that Martin St. Louis has really instilled in his team. Yeah, I agree. And I think he's done, quite honestly, a masterful job of getting these guys to fight, whether it's coming back from a few goals against Utah, like we've built up that tendency to do over the last few years, or having these leads and most of the time protecting them, blowing some of them, but still oftentimes winning, like nine-game point streak. What else to say? And the final thing, too, just to mention on the Demi front, just a reminder how good our power play was last year with him. Top 10 in the NHL. We currently have about a top 10 PK. We're about to head back to a top 10 power play. Leave some hype for Ivan Demidov and the depth in this lineup and everything that's about to go right for this team down below because that will do it, though, for this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in every single day and for putting up with this voice. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host, Jesse Paul. We'll catch you all in the next one.