Ivan Demidov back in training with SKA

A few weeks ago, Ivan Demidov suffered a serious ankle injury. It notably ended his season in Russia (when his club was in the final), but there was no talk of an injury that would necessarily impact him in the long term.

It wasn’t ideal… but that wasn’t a reason not to draft him either.

In the end, the Habs drafted him on June 28, and that evening he told TVA Sports that he expected to be back at training “in a week or so”.

That said, when the SKA training camp opened in Russia ten days ago, Demidov was conspicuous by his absence. The player’s agent explained to Nicolas Cloutier that the kid was still recovering from his injury.

Since then, we’ve been waiting for Demidov to return to training… and now, according to images published by the KHL’s X account, the forward is back in training with his team.

It’s #KHLPreseason mode for Ivan Demidov. pic.twitter.com/ri70qFHa0c

– KHL (@khl_eng) July 25, 2024

It’s obviously great news to see that the kid ‘s state of health allows him to resume training. He may not be 100% yet, but he’s still able to start training again with the rest of his team.

In the end, it took him almost a month (not a week) after the draft to start training again, but the good news is that he didn’t rush his return… and he’s healthy right now.

Remember that Demidov’s Russian coach, Roman Rotenberg, intends to keep the youngster in the KHL this season(at least, that’s the case at the moment, according to the official version). He chatted with the Habs about Demidov’s development, and it sounds like he’ll get a chance to shine.

It’s good news to see him able to return to training when he’ll be competing for a position on an offensive line. It’s safe to assume that he hasn’t fallen too far behind the rest of the group.

We’ll see in the next few days whether any footage of the kid on the ice will be released, but it’s good to see that Demidov is able to prepare for the season ahead.

This will be an important year for his development, after all.

Overtime

– Retirement for Marc Labrecque.

After an incredible 30-year career at RDS, Marc Labrecque hangs up his microphone!

Happy (well-deserved) retirement to an extraordinary colleague! We’ll miss you Marc, a real ray of sunshine in theRDS newsroomhttps://t.co/xHUkgyW3pT pic.twitter.com/NWI001hZD6