One of the many reasons why NHL teams draft more players out of junior hockey than at any other level is the guarantee of ice time. No CHLers drafted by NHL clubs will be healthy scratches or play five minutes a night for the remainder of their junior careers.
It can be a different story for European drafts. Many play in men’s leagues and don’t get key roles as they’re inexperienced and still maturing physically.
This can be especially true in Russia, and so far this season, the Canadiens are finding out first-hand that ice time in Russian men’s leagues for rookies can be scarce.
Ivan Demidov has seen his ice shrink in each game this season with SKA. He played 14+ minutes on opening night. By Game 3, he was down to ten minutes and had six shifts in the last two periods as SKA lost 2-0 to Loko Yaroslavl.
SKA coach Roman Rotenberg is already showing his true colours. He has been reluctant to play promising young players who were high picks in the NHL Draft.
Nikita Chibikrov played 16 games with SKA in his draft year. After Winnipeg selected him 50th overall in the 2021 NHL draft, Chibikrov played only four games for SKA in 2021-22.
Marat Khusnatdinov was Minnesota’s 37th overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft. He saw his playing time increase each of his first three seasons with SKA, In 2022-23 he played 63 games and chipped in 41 points, fifth-best among SKA forwards.
Khusnatdinov didn’t renew his KHL contract last season. He went from 16:41 TOI in 2022-23 to 10 minutes a night and no power play time last September. He sat out nine of SKA’s first 15 games before being loaned to Sochi. Khusnatdinov ended last season with the Minnesota Wild, who never sat him and gave him a top-nine role and power-play time.
Khusnatdinov wasn’t the only youngster in the final year of his KHL contract loaned to Sochi last season by SKA. The seventh overall NHL pick, Matvei Michkov, was moved to center in training camp despite being a winger all of his life, sat out games and had little ice time to start the season, and ended up in Sochi just as he had the year before when he finished top 25 in KHL points per game.
Conversely – a longtime NHLer Evgeni Kuznetsov decides to move back to Russia and sign a four-year contract with SKA, and the red carpet gets rolled out for him.
He has been coasting in the three games he’s played so far but never misses a shift, and was given the ‘C’ despite his well-documented off-ice issues in Washington. But hey…Rotenberg has him for four years and he’s committed to his beloved Russia, so he’s the pampered patriot while the kids who get picked high by and want to go chase their NHL dreams get buried.
It’s not difficult to understand why Rotenberg would be averse to seeing young talent leaving Russia.
A Russian entrepreneur with his hand in many cookie jars, TASS news agency reported on January that Rotenberg was included on a list of proxies of Vladimir Putin in the 2024 Russian presidential election. It is well documented that he is pals with Putin. Rotenberg’s father Boris is a Russian oligarch who is Putin’s childhood friend, a former judo sparring partner, and a recreational hockey teammate.
Rotenberg is the vice president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, general manager of the Russia national hockey team, a member of the Kontinental Hockey League board of directors, Deputy Chairman of the KHL board, Deputy Chairman of the SKA Hockey Club board of directors, and SKA CEO and vice-president.
Despite his egregious lack of coaching experience, he replaced Valeri Bragin as head coach of SKA in January of 2022. One can easily piece together why the club’s CEO and KHL board member got the coaching job.
Rotenberg appears to have hidden agendas,, and no one to hold him in check. He won’t be fired for refusing to play a young phenom who isn’t staying in Russia after his contract expires.
So a great talent like Ivan Demidov, who almost singlehandedly defeated Rotenberg’s SKA team in the recent Puchkov Cup as captain of the Russia U23 team, is already getting benched even though he created plenty of scoring chances through three KHL games.
Demidov was almost unstoppable in 3-on-3 overtime and on power plays in the Puchkov tournament. Rotenberg witnessed him first-hand score a dynamic overtime goal against SKA.
So where was Demidov when SKA went to overtime in the season opener? Sitting on the bench as Metallurg won the contest in the opening shift of overtime.
Where was Demidov when SKA had extended power-play time that included a 5-on-3 while trailing 1-0 in the third period of Game 3? On the bench watching his teammates flounder with the man advantage and create nothing. The first Russian player selected in the top five of the NHL Draft since Ovechkin played less than a minute in the third period of a game where his team trailed 1-0 and desperately needed a goal.
SKA is a KHL team that is deep in talent and defending KHL champions but there are no elite goal scorers. The top goal-getter on the club last year had only 22 goals. Would Rotenberg prefer being shut out than having a young phenom destined for Montreal at season’s end bail his team out when it was desperately needed?
Rotenberg knows SKA will make the playoffs with or without Demidov’s help. He won’t fire himself if the club underachieves at playoff time.
We will get a much better idea of where this is heading in SKA’s next game on Sept. 12. If Demidov languishes on the bench or is a healthy scratch on a team that has scored only seven goals in its first three games, it is a sign that Demidov will be heading elsewhere. Ultimately; that may be the best thing for him just as it was for Michkov the past two seasons.
If Demidov is loaned to another KHL club it will likely be a bottom feeder so that he can’t come back to haunt SKA in the playoffs. Rotenberg did that with Michkov by loaning him to Sochi for two seasons.
A more likely spot for Demidov would be the SKA Neva St. Petersburg, SKA’s VHL affiliate. He will be dominant at the VHL level if he’s demoted, and the club’s coach would have no choice but to give him ample playing time. Demidov proved last season that he’s already too strong for the MHL after being the first Russian junior to ever lead the MHL in points per game in both the regular season and playoffs.
The ideal solution is for Rotenberg to get over his political bias regarding young players and give Demidov the ice time and opportunity he deserves with SKA. We should know where that is heading in the next week or two.
