Photo credit: TSN

We can now officially say that young Ivan Demidov has indeed arrived in Canada. Accompanied by his girlfriend, he arrived yesterday night at Toronto airport.

It actually created quite a unique scene last night at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

In short, we later learned that the Canadiens made two special requests to Demidov upon his arrival in North America.

The Canadiens asked Ivan Demidov not to speak to the media and to take a mandatory rest day today

We mentioned this earlier today, but as a true hockey enthusiast, Ivan Demidov is extremely eager to meet his new teammates and play his first NHL game.

However, the Canadiens made a wise decision in asking him to stay in Toronto and take a “mandatory” rest day today.

After everything he’s experienced in the past few hours, including the travel and jet lag, I think that’s more than reasonable.

As for the media silence, it makes sense.

A press conference is being prepared for Ivan Demidov

This media ban will be short-lived.

Even though many media outlets and journalists wanted to speak with Demidov right away, the Canadiens also asked him not to talk to anyone.

However, that’s simply in anticipation of the official press conference.

As reported in the following DLC article, the Canadiens indeed want to keep exclusivity for their press conference (which is currently being prepared), and that’s when Demidov will be presented to fans and journalists.. and that’s when he’ll be available to answer questions.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on that for you.