The Montreal Canadiens announced some unfortunate news on Tuesday regarding an Ivan Demidov injury timeline. Demidov will be out for two to four weeks with a lower-body injury. Fans will have to wait a while longer to watch him at the Bell Centre, as the Habs' home opener is tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes .
Oct 25, 2025; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov (93) celebrates his goal against the Vancouver Canucks in the third period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Demidov finished his last game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, where he scored a goal in the final minute to tie the game at 5-5 and send it to overtime, where the Habs would eventually lose but still earn a point.
Demidov missed a practice yesterday due to a " therapy day, " according to the team. He also did not participate in Tuesday's morning skate. Furthermore, Demidov had scheduled two signing events, one with AJ Sports on Friday and one with Memorable Authentic on Sunday, both of which he has postponed.
The extent of Demidov's injury remains in the air, but after a shot block to the foot in Trois-Rivières during a preseason game against the Ottawa Senators, which prompted him to miss a couple of preseason practices after that. Clearly, he has tried to push through some sort of injury to this point, but Tuesday's home opener will be the first game Demidov will miss in his career, as he played all 82 games last season.
In place of Demidov, Kirby Dach will move up to the second line tonight, while Florian Xhekaj will make his Canadiens debut. At morning skate today, the lines were as follows:
| LW |
C |
RW |
|---|---|---|
| Cole Caufield |
Nick Suzuki |
Chris Kreider |
| Juraj Slafkovsky |
Alex Newhook |
Kirby Dach |
| Zachary Bolduc |
Phillip Danault |
Alexandre Texier |
| Florian Xhekaj |
Jake Evans |
Josh Anderson |
| LD |
RD |
|---|---|
| Michael Matheson |
Noah Dobson |
| Lane Hutson |
Alexandre Carrier |
| Jayden Struble |
Arber Xhekaj |
| Starter |
Backup |
|---|---|
| Jakub Dobes |
Sam Montembeault |
Head coach Martin St. Louis was confident in the team's ability to keep pushing and not play any differently. " If anything, it gives opportunity to somebody else to make some plays and I feel like we have the depth for that ," said St. Louis after Tuesday's morning skate " I think the way our lines are shaped I think we have depth down all of them and we can come in waves. I'm confident that we can keep going knowing that we lost a pretty good piece. "
The Demidov injury is no doubt a tough one, as he is one of the key contributors to the Habs' offence, but when injury strikes, in comes opportunity for other players. For Dach, this is a chance to prove that he can play higher up the lineup, as he is an unrestricted free agent this summer and should be battling to get his next contract. For Florian Xhekaj, he gets to play with his brother for the first time in a regular-season game. He has a similar playing style to his brother, albeit at the forward position. This is a chance for him to show what he's got as well.
Montreal will play their home opener tonight against the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
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Main Photo Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
