Ivan Demidov Has a Big Future. Now Comes the Hard Part

Ivan Demidov has been getting a lot of attention in Montreal since the day the Canadiens drafted him. That isn't going away anytime soon. Now Kris Letang has thrown a little more gasoline on the fire, suggesting that if everything goes right, Demidov could be close to a top-five player in the league within three years.

That's quite a thing to say about a 20-year-old who has played 84 NHL games. And maybe he's right. That's what makes Demidov so exciting. But there is another side to this that is worth thinking about.

What happens when a prospect’s potential becomes expectation?

Nobody needs to tell Canadiens fans that Demidov is talented. They watched him put up 62 points in his first full NHL season. They watched the flashes of brilliance. They saw enough to understand why Montreal believes it has something special.

But “special” is one thing. “Top five player in the league” is something else entirely. Once you start putting a player in that conversation, the expectations change. Suddenly 70 points might not feel like 70 points. A good season might feel disappointing. A stretch of ordinary games becomes something people want explained.

That's the funny thing about young stars. We spend years asking how good they might become, and then, once they show us how good they can be, we start demanding that they become that player immediately. Demidov has already signed an eight-year, $73.2 million contract. At $9.15 million per season, that's a big number, but it could eventually look like a bargain if Letang's prediction comes anywhere close to reality.

If Demidov scores 80 points, people might ask why he didn't score 90. If he scores 90, they'll wonder about 100. And if he gets to 100, well, now we're talking about top-five territory. That's how this works.

Maybe Montreal's biggest job is managing the expectations.

The Canadiens don't need Demidov to become the fifth-best player in hockey next season. They don't even need him to become the fifth-best player in hockey three years from now. They need to let the kid keep getting better.

That's the strange part of having a player with this much talent. The excitement is real, and the prediction may prove completely accurate. But there is a difference between believing a player can become something and expecting him to become it on schedule.

Montreal has waited a long time for a young player who might eventually change the franchise’s direction. Now that it has one, perhaps the best thing the Canadiens can do is give Ivan Demidov room to become whatever he will become.

Even if Kris Letang turns out to be right.