Sunday Habs Headlines: Canadiens to meet with Ivan Demidov

Montreal Canadiens news and notes

• Montreal’s management team is planning a trip to Russia to meet with Ivan Demidov in the next few weeks. [Sportsnet]
• The Islanders approached Lane Hutson the same way they treated Cale Makar earlier in the season. [Journal de Montreal]
• Logan Mailloux was among the top NHL prospects in the opening week of the AHL season. [NHL.com]
• Early thoughts on all 32 NHL teams. [The Athletic]
• A long-term investment and a marketing campaign from the new owner of the Lions de Trois-Rivières is breathing new life into the Canadiens’ ECHL affiliate. [Radio-Canada]

• Around the league and elsewhere

  • Aleksander Barkov could return next week for the Florida Panthers. [NHL.com]
  • Kent Johnson will miss a lot of time for the Columbus Blue Jackets. [TSN]
  • The NHL is looking into more interesting ways to present the end-of-season awards. [Sportsnet]
  • Brenden Morrow is honoured to be in the Dallas Stars’ Hall of Fame. [NHL.com]
• Just an fyi, PP success.
  Even the best have dry spells. Granted, we’ve not had a strong PP in a long time, but that’s even more reason to give us lee way to develop it, especially with incoming strong PP players like Laine, Demi next year, and a year of Hutson manning the point on A or B.
  Oilers, presently :
• 
  Somehow, the five-man unit that has been the best in the NHL over the previous three seasons can’t find its mojo. The zone entries aren’t as clean as they’ve always been, the passing is not as accurate, and the ability to use Hyman down low has faded.
  Oilers and Stars, presently:
  The Stars have gone two-for-18 on the power play this season, while the Oilers have gone one-for-15. Both teams were among the best in the NHL in PP per cent last season. Dallas finished sixth in the league last season on the PP (24.2 per cent) while Edmonton was fourth (26.3 per cent)
  Our PP will be top 10 2 seasons from now, maybe even next season with Laine and Demi playing from the start, and one more year of experience for our core, and Lane.
  Something exciting to look forward to.
  Exciting like the Koivu/Souray/Markov/Kovalev PP days.