Montreal Locked Up Demidov Before the NHL's Contract Clock Ran Out
Ivan Demidov's $73 million extension was one of seven signed this summer, as Montreal locks in the eight-year deal before the deadline.
There are four weeks left in the history of the eight-year NHL contract, and only seven players got one this summer. Ivan Demidov is one of them, which is the part Montreal will care about for the next decade.
The Canadiens signed Demidov to an eight-year, $73 million extension on July 1, a $9.125 million annual cap hit that runs from 2027-28 through 2034-35. He was 20 years old at the time of signing. He had played exactly one full NHL season.
That season justified it. Demidov, the No. 5 pick in the 2024 draft, put up 62 points in 82 games as a rookie, 19 goals and 43 assists, then added nine points in 19 playoff games as Montreal went 48-24-10 and reached the Eastern Conference Final. He made the NHL All-Rookie Team and finished second in Calder Trophy voting. Very few players in the league have a better claim to being underpaid at $9.125 million by the time the deal actually starts.
Why the term matters more than the money
The collective bargaining agreement the NHL and NHLPA ratified takes effect Sept. 16, 2026, and runs through Sept. 15, 2030. One of its structural changes is a hard cut to contract length. A player re-signing with his own club can sign for a maximum of seven years instead of eight. A player signing with a new team drops from seven to six. Sept. 15 is the last day the old limits apply.
The league’s stated logic is straightforward enough. Nobody involved believes a player is worth what a max-term deal pays him in its final years, and shaving twelve months off the ceiling takes some of that risk off the table for both sides. What it also does is make the class of 2026 permanent. Whatever eight-year contracts exist after Sept. 15 are the only eight-year contracts that will exist, and they will look increasingly strange sitting on cap sheets alongside seven-year and six-year deals for the rest of the decade.
Seven players took the offer. Ville Koivunen was the most recent, signing with Pittsburgh at a $4 million cap hit, joining Demidov, John Marino, Tyson Foerster, Eetu Luostarinen, Alex Tuch and Darren Raddysh. That is a remarkably short list for what should have been a rush to the exit.
The stars mostly said no
The most interesting thing about the deadline is who ignored it. Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard and Pavel Mintyukov were all restricted free agents in position to take maximum term, and all three signed five-year extensions instead. That is a straightforward bet on themselves. Five years takes each of them to unrestricted free agency in their mid-twenties, inside a rising cap, with the leverage of a market that will have almost no long-term contracts left to compare against.
Demidov went the other way, and Montreal should be grateful he did. The Canadiens have their best forward prospect since Cole Caufield signed through his age-29 season at a number that will look like a bargain in four years, secured in the last window the league will ever offer for it.
Montreal opens the season on Sept. 29 in Toronto and hosts the Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes in its home opener on Oct. 6. On Oct. 25 the Canadiens play Winnipeg outdoors at Princess Auto Stadium in the Heritage Classic. Demidov’s extension does not begin until the season after this one. The contract that ends in 2035 has already been signed.
Odds and market references describe the situation at the time of writing. You must meet the legal gambling age in your province or territory. See responsible gambling.