It’s Ivan Demidov Day for the Montreal Canadiens and all across the hockey world.

Tonight, the young phenom will finally play his first game in the National Hockey League, and, of course, his first game with the Canadiens.

There have already been changes to Martin St-Louis’s line combinations.

We also had a press conference with Kent Hughes:

When will there be media availability for Ivan Demidov?

On that note, it’s worth mentioning that Demidov was supposed to take part in a press conference with Kent Hughes today (Monday), to officially present him to fans and the media.

However, that highly anticipated press conference has been canceled.

“The Canadiens announce that Ivan Demidov won’t speak with media until after tonight’s game vs. Blackhawks.

GM Kent Hughes will speak with media after morning skate.”

– Stu Cowan

Knowing that Demidov will give a short post-game media availability in the Canadiens’ locker room like all other players, we can now assume that the big introductory press conference that was in the works will never happen.

A smart decision by the Montreal Canadiens organization on game day for Ivan Demidov

Demidov is already facing a huge day, and there’s no need to pile on more pressure with a formal press conference. He needs to focus on his game, and this setup is just right.

Demidov will give his first media availability in the locker room after tonight’s game.

Let’s call it a press conference, but in reality, it’ll be more of a small scrum like we see after every game in the Canadiens’ room.