Canadiens' Players Eager To Get Back To Work

· Yahoo Sports

While the Montreal Canadiens won’t have an official practice until Tuesday afternoon, Ivan Demidov has already been back on the ice in Brossard for a few days. Still, on Friday morning, he was joined by two other players, and a former player.

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Kirby Dach and Jake Evans joined the Russian rookie as he skated at the CN Sports Complex. With Samuel Montembeault and Jakub Dobes not being back yet, the three players took shots on a guest goalie: former blueliner David Savard.

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It’s great to see Dach back to work early, especially since there have been questions raised about his work ethic when he showed up to camp in disappointing shape ahead of the 2024-25 season. The 25-year-old is in the last year of the “show me” deal he signed when the Canadiens acquired him during the 2022 draft, and he’s running out of time to convince the Habs’ brass of what he can do and that he can stay healthy.

The soon-to-be RFAs’ timing couldn’t be better; however, there’s currently a spot up for grabs alongside Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki since Juraj Slafkovsky has developed good chemistry with Oliver Kapanen and Demidov. If Dach can show he deserves to have an extended look there, he may be able to surprise and be more productive than he’s ever been with the Canadiens.

After all, he played his best hockey in Montreal when he played on the wing of the Canadiens’ fantastic duo. Both Caufield and Suzuki are on pace for career years. If Caufield keeps his current rhythm, he could put up 46 goals (37 is his highest total so far) and 82 points (he set his career high last season with 70 points). As for Suzuki, his production so far tells us that he could hit 25 goals and 67 assists for 92 points, three more than he got last season.

It’s now or never for Dach, and he needs to demonstrate why he should be part of the Canadiens’ core for a long time if he doesn’t want the organization to move on. It seems that they’ve already given up on the thought that he could be one of their centers, but he could still convince them that he can be a reliable top-six option if the stars align for him.

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