he just keeps doing the craziest stuff on the ice as to mea fires an insane behind the back pass not to mention playing on a line with a Genny ketov and his own coach Roman Rottenberg who scores in this clip in the ska preseason demidov playing with some pretty Elite linemates and that has some huge implications for what we're going to see from him this season Jesse we got to get into that though demidov has still become somehow underrated at this point as on a recent list Cory prman of the athletic takes this player seeing here with this incredible skill ranks him below slavkovsky ranks him 17th in terms of all players under 23 and there's a lot more Montreal Canadians that we got to talk about that plus a little note on Matias norinder all coming up on this episode of habs digest and we're going to start with Mattias norinder uh oh well that's the wrong chapter uh but you know what we're just not going to bring up chapters this still isn't as good as I thought that's the wrong thing but you know what who cares it doesn't even matter we got to talk about Matias norlander that kind of fits Jesse we talked about him bit in last video but it's done he declined the offer we heard that he was going to get an offer probably for you know less than what they would have signed him for they released him gave him another chance to come back at probably a lower capit and the report is that he declined it as lval Rocket defenseman has declined the Habs contract offer says gunar Nordstrom it was made over the weekend comes after the Canadians let norinder walk to free agency in June Jesse what are your feelings on Mattias norinder leaving the org I mean I really like this guy he was hyped for so so much he had such an amazing training camp before and we were ready for him to take that leap he never did but I honestly just really hope he finds a great home somewhere else whether it's in the NHL or maybe overseas it's too bad that it didn't work out but it definitely seems like his prospects will be best served by going overseas at this point it was a little bit of a roller coaster ride Josh I was excited where finally he had that good camp after a little bit of ups and downs that maybe he could kind of make it translate in the AHL but unfortunately only nine points in 50 games last year for the type of offensive defenseman that he is just not enough we know that this still was there unfortunately you know at six foot not being overly huge just for whatever reason wasn't able to make it work I don't think that that's a blueprint for all kind of smaller type defenseman just in his case not really able to make it happen fortunately there's a good news for him they did a crowd Gund me for him some crowdfunding for him to get a spot it seems like in Sweden so it looks like he's gon to be playing over there very soon I would love that I'd love to see him back in the shl because I really think that in the right situation you know he can Thrive I just think at this point the NHL game it just hasn't seemed to suit him and that that is what it is not everyone needs to make the NHL not everyone can be a star Prospect so just wish the best for norinder not going to spend too too much time on this uh as well that video pops back up we'll get into that a little bit later things are getting chaotic right off the bat in this video but wish the best for norinder but Jesse I want to quickly move on to something else and I want to move on to Corey pran's recent under 23 list it'll be linked down below I suggest you guys go check it out ranking the best NHL players and Prospects under 23 Bard stla and cele top the list they're in that Elite tier there's no surprise there but what was a bit surprising is the first mention of the Habs and I'm not even going to get into that right away I just want to show you what tier two is tier two is bubble elite players not quite Elite and NHL Allstar bubble Elite and NHL Allstar tier players this is it Leo Carlson Luke Hughes mat mitkov and Arch lunov and no demov it's like okay I know pran's been a bit low on demov well we're demov and slaw these guys they finded themselves at 15 and 17 now I know we love SL Zilla but uh to meet off I would arguably have him above SLA so here you're in tier three this is the NHL Allstar tier which is still not bad for these guys for an under 23 list to have a 20-year-old and a 19-year-old I'm okay with that but at the same time looking at some names above them Alexis lafranier Maddie bers who's coming off a sub 40 Point Season I believe Carter yemchuk What Anton C okay why Johnson me Jesse this to me I mean we're going to get into some more stuff in a bit but this to me just screams underrated I mean look I'm not asking these guys to be in the elite tier but uh seeing some of the names ahead of them honestly just has me very confused analyst after analyst has this as one of the best Prospect pools in the entire NHL so Josh I too was very surprised to see two of our top prospects or players young players at this point at 15 and 17 that's for me is way too low if you have one of the best Prospect pools in this league that is for sure I think a big thing here just to kind of kind of Tak a note when we're kind of reflecting on on this list is it's hard definitely with prospects to kind of determine of where they're going to be in the future especially because so much of their future is really outside of the analyst hands they can have so many tools on the checkbox but for whatever reason doesn't turn around just in that defense of Corey prman there I would have to say though that the model is no suspect in some type of ways I would say for sure like I would definitely have a demod off ahead of a fan tility you know on this list for sure I think that SLA you know while you know size is kind of valued so much by him I really don't see him as being that low for Ryan Bacher I know that we're not there yet and with and with my and with gie but like he had them list as like middle pairing type of guys you have to think that Kaden ghouly or Ryan Bacher as in the peak of their careers which this model is what it's based off of of what they will become in their career and that's why I find this even a little bit more suspect is we're not judging them right now it's like of what they will become right like you have to feel like demidov will be an elite player and Ry Bacher gly even on a competitive Montreal team one of them definitely has stand up being a top pairing guy oh yeah for sure like to me that's that's exactly what Montreal is building towards like I think that's what they see in them that's what I see in them and I actually don't even have a picture them because it's hard to get a picture of everyone on this list uh but I think gly was what 55 in the mid-50s Ry Bacher was in the mid-60s it's like okay you got to be higher than mid-tier NHL defenseman though again like it's okay I I get it like gouie had to step back offensively but so did matd bers and David Ryan booger had a rough year one thing I wanted to to just pick out quick because I want to get through this because we got to get to some demet off stuff after he kind of mentions like you know the big thing with with Cory proman a lot of the time the size comes up and you know when he mentions deav he's like you know toov is not the biggest Winger Theo is 6'1 192 that is taller than the average NHL forward as of 2024 which is 6' and half an inch it's heavier than a lot of NHL forwards not to mention it's about 15 lounds heavier and about three and is taller than M mitkov so just wanted to put that out there just wanted to say but the other guy Jesse that gets disrespected because of his size and he's Below guys like G and Ry Bacher as well is Lane Hudson at 87 below the likes of jet lenko Conor geeki Co B Dwayne this to me is the most the single most egregious thing he's in tier seven I know Cory proman has never been necessarily high on Hudson I will give proman credit again I don't think this is a bad list I definitely don't agree with it but he has his own reasons for putting people in certain places and he's been very consistent with what he has liked and not liked this to me I think is the most egregious and to only have Justin Baron 12 spots behind Hudson 2 is kind of insane to me I get it you want to see some more but um I I'm I'm not happy seeing him this low considering the insane offensive potential he has despite his size that's that's a big one there is a huge gap between him and Justin Baron I think that lane is definitely a glaring uh kind of omission not to have him earlier up on this list and a big thing for me Josh I would have to mention is this like like when they're breaking down the player for SLA is they mentioned that his compete being you know kind of average and for me there there absolutely nothing about stuff like have you seen this guy on an exercise bike have you seen him competing for a puck along the boards in a board battle like this guy competes like there's no tomorrow it's one of the biggest things about him he's a Workhorse in fact so that's just one of the biggest things we know Cory proman prolific and being very good when it's coming to the drafts and we're not trying to knock him too much not at all prospects you know which is we have to feel like with such a great group we definitely consistently should be having a lot of these players ranked a lot higher like myu again he broke a record last year for the Laval rocket for goals scored by a defenseman you know having him listed at number 120 for me is far too low it's just it's kind of crazy there's a lot of habs players that are just too low on this list let us know your thoughts down below and again big shout out to promet it's not easy to do this so you can pick and choose we can be saying what we agree with disagree with but that's at the end of the day what it is I don't hate this list I don't hate the work I definitely disagree with it but go check it out down below let us know your thoughts as again I would put the chapter up but I don't have it so we're just going to get straight into the last thing you know we talked a bit about demov but it's time to get back into this and this has big implications for for his future development Jesse we're going to play these clips again first off this slow-mo behind the back pass is absolutely insane I know we've seen SLA pull off something similar to that but the big thing here is this scrimmage the ska preseason scrimmage and look there's nothing crazy happening in this game they're going low effort but that's if Genny ketov and his coach Roman Rottenberg on the same line here's the mov himself little shimmy little pass to his coach little pass back and the score the thing with the MEO he's just like I know there's like this is low effort but still the fact he's playing with these players getting assists for his coach and look at the coach look at you Ian you're doing so great look at that bucket on Rottenberg as well unreal stuff to me Jesse I don't know like I don't want to infer too much from this because you know realistically the idea of having a 19-year-old demov on the top line with former NHL like KET top line or second line whatever it might end up being is a bit optimistic I think especially for an ska team that is consistently in that fight to win the KHL you know I I think it would be pretty insane if he managed to do that right out the gate but at the same time it's like you know you probably don't put him on a line with this guy you probably don't have him practicing with Keta if you don't at least intend for them to play together in some capacity at some point I don't know am I inferring too much from this Jesse I'm starting to think that you know just having him get reps with these guys is is telling us something really big for what's to come this here we saw that s from Romberg you know that demidov's his favorite player on that team for sure and why not he was all over the I with the breakaways and being a lot of the playmaker in this game as well getting lots of assists like as we see having the goalie totally at his Mercy toying with him in fact as he kind of launches over and again we see the no look behind the pass just the awareness on the ice to be knowing where your players are and again being creative out there is such a big thing for him but on one one of these goals what surprised me the most is his ability to kind of look like Suzuki in a lot of ways where he freezes the goalie to sell the shot so hard to just kind of sell that pass like who have we seen that before from so deceptive and if you overplay the pass thinking that he's just gonna set it up then he's just gonna snipe it on you right so this is why they're talking about him being like a triple threat in so many ways and just basically taking over the game you know his fingerprints is all over he just continues to amaze us here and like I know it's super low effort you can't actually lean anything from this that's why I'm not saying like you know this is going to be translatable to the NHL game no not necessarily but I do think the people he's playing with and just a little subtle movements Jesse just like you said just even those little subtle things when he's around the goalie even to deceive a goalie in that situation is not necessarily the easiest thing to do right so there are some things that we can get excited about is this the most exciting highlight package we've ever shown on the channel no definitely not however the idea of demov playing with ketov playing under a head coach that clearly loves him that's hey pretty good at setting him up too is really really exciting let us know your thoughts about all these clips and his situation down below we'd love to hear from you cuz that'll do it for this episode I Habs digest if you enjoyed leave a like comment subscribe to the channel we're almost at 15,000 Subs we'd love you guys could help us hit that before the season starts if you haven't hit sub do it now we'd really appreciate it I'm Josh G my co-host Jesse P we'll catch you in the next one