Ivan Demidov is sticking around Montreal for the long haul.
The Canadiens locked up the 20-year-old winger on an eight-year, US$73.2-million extension that starts in the 2027-28 season, keeping one of the team’s brightest young pieces in place through the 2034-35 campaign.
Demidov was the NHL’s top rookie scorer last season, piling up 62 points with 19 goals and 43 assists. He also finished second in Calder Trophy voting after a breakout year that included nine points in 19 playoff games as Montreal pushed to the Eastern Conference final.
Taken fifth overall in the 2024 NHL draft, Demidov now joins a growing list of core Canadiens signed well into the future. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson are among the young names already under contract through at least 2030. Noah Dobson, at $9.5 million per season through 2033, remains the highest-paid player on the roster, with the salary cap set to climb sharply over the next few years.
The timing mattered, too. Montreal and Demidov got the deal done before Sept. 15, when the maximum length on a re-signing drops from eight years to seven under the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement.
Elsewhere around the league, the Toronto Maple Leafs sent pending restricted free agent Nick Robertson to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a fourth-round pick in 2028.
Robertson, 24, put up career bests last season with 16 goals and 32 points in 78 games while playing on a one-year, US$1.825 million contract. The move also reunites him with Kyle Dubas, the former Maple Leafs general manager who now runs hockey operations in Pittsburgh. Dubas originally selected Robertson in the second round, 53rd overall, in the 2019 NHL draft.
The Ottawa Senators also made a pair of moves, signing goalie Samuel Ersson to a two-year, $4.4-million contract and re-signing Nick Cousins on a two-year deal worth $3.175 million.
Ottawa had just acquired Ersson from the Maple Leafs for a 2027 fifth-round pick last week, then let him briefly reach free agency. The 26-year-old Swede went 33 games with the Philadelphia Flyers last season, finishing with a .870 save percentage and a 3.12 goals-against average.
Cousins, meanwhile, is back for a second season in Ottawa after posting nine goals, 23 points and 92 penalty minutes in 81 games. His prior contract was due to expire when free agency opened at 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old Belleville, Ont., native has played 12 NHL seasons with seven different teams, collecting 86 goals and 218 points. He also won a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in 2024 before arriving in Ottawa the following year.
The Senators have already been busy this offseason, trading captain Brady Tkachuk to the Panthers and adding forward William Eklund from the San Jose Sharks.
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Quinn is entering the final year of his contract and is expected to head toward restricted free agency next season, which gives this idea a timing edge as Buffalo weighs its next move. Any deal would also have to satisfy the Sabres need to keep building on the blue line, with a prospect such as Logan Hensler potentially part of the conversation, setting up the kind of swap that could spark plenty of debate in Ottawa. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Suddenly Have A Toronto Scoring Target Worth Debating
After adding William Eklund and Andre Burakovsky, the Senators still look like a club that could use one more swing on the wing, especially if they want to keep reshaping the forward group around more skill. That is why Matias Maccelli has surfaced as a name worth watching in Ottawa circles. The Maple Leafs forward has put himself back on the radar after a productive season in Toronto, and his profile is the kind that can tempt teams looking for a playmaker who might fit into a more defined role.
For Ottawa, the appeal is less about splash and more about fit. Maccellis game suggests a player who could help the Senators in the middle of the lineup and add another layer of puck movement to a forward corps that still has room for more creativity. Whether he ends up as a middle-six option or pushes higher in the pecking order, he gives the Senators a legitimate discussion point as they sort through the rest of their offseason shopping list. [Read more 🡒]