Montreal Canadiens: Who is fresh acquisition Vasili Demchenko?

With the NHL’s entry-level frenzy raging on as the fate of the season is still uncertain, the Montreal Canadiens have made an interesting KHL acquisition in Vasili Demchenko.

For the most part, the Montreal Canadiens haven’t been very active during this impromptu off-season of sorts. That was until Vasili Demchenko joined the picture.

While rival teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs have inked SKA St. Petersburg star Alexander Barabanov, the Canadiens main target, forward Konstantin Okulov, didn’t pan out, at least for the time being, with him signing a one-year extension to remain in the KHL. Despite this, GM Marc Bergevin kept looking, eventually signing 26-year-old goaltender Vasili Demchenko to a one-year entry-level deal on Tuesday.

For many hockey fans, Demchenko is an unfamiliar face, and well, there’s a good reason for that. In a league where former NHL goalies and top prospects like Edward Pasquale, Igor Bobkov, and Ilya Sorokin take center stage, Demchenko has been part of the lesser majority, goalies who, despite being talented in their own right, either struggle to get playing time on great teams or have the misfortune of being the starter for lesser teams.

Making his KHL debut in 2013-14, Demchenko has spent the majority of his career with Chelyabinsk Traktor, middle of the road team who has struggled to achieve consistent success. For the most part, Demchenko split time with current Colorado Avalanche starter Pavel Francouz, recording two seasons with at least four shutouts.

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After Francouz signed in Colorado, Demchenko found himself in the middle of a four-goalie carousel as his team fell below .500. Eventually, being traded to the Sergei Mozyakin led Magnitogorsk Metallurg midway through this season, Demchenko played backup to KHL veteran Vasili Koshechkin.

Now having signed in Montreal, Demchenko finds himself in the mix of another four-goalie system, alongside starter Carey Price, backup Charlie Lindgren, and top prospect Cayden Primeau. After the failed experiment with Keith Kinkaid, Lindgren was brought in as a fill-in backup until the team found someone more serviceable, which never happened. In six games, Lindgren struggled, posting a 2-4 record with a 3.33 GAA. While Primeau showed promise in his two-game cup of coffee, he’s still young and would benefit from the increased playing time he was seeing in Laval.

In many ways, Demchenko is a mix of both Primeau and Lindgren, as while he’s proving he can handle considerable minutes playing for a weaker team, he also doesn’t have any experience with the higher skill level of the NHL. It’s a similar story to many of the KHL bred players the Canadiens have signed, like Jiri Sekac and Jakub Jerabek.

At his core, Demchenko is a solid goaltender, he covers his angles well, has good mobility, and as stated, can deal with increased minutes, albeit at a lower level. However, he’s not very big at 6’00 tall and 165 pounds, though this is hopefully something he’ll work on in the offseason.

If this season has shown us anything, its that the KHL can produce talented goaltenders, with players like Washington Capitals and New York Rangers rookies Ilya Samsonov and Igor Shestyorkin performing very well for their respective teams, taking starts over proven NHL veterans like Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist.

Both of these players played in a primarily backup role in the KHL, yet still managed to adjust to the higher skill level rather easily, albeit after some seasoning in the AHL. Personally, I think Demchenko will provide Lindgren with some decent competition for the backup job in Montreal, and if he doesn’t make it, it will help Laval out immensely, possibly more so than Lindgren could.

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Of course, the fate of both this and even next NHL season is still up in the air, but Demchenko does bring an interesting aspect to the Canadiens crease, both for the Laval Rocket and potentially even the Canadiens. There are never any guarantees with these KHL stars, but lets’ hope that Demchenko can be an exception to the rule, and finally give Carey Price, a solid backup option.

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