Since the start of the year, Ivan Demidov has been Evgeny Kuznetsov’s teammate with SKA. The two guys often play on the same line, and we feel that they are there for each other.
A few weeks ago, the veteran insisted he was still going to protect Demidov. He really takes him under his wing.
Clearly, therefore, we feel that there is a great camaraderie between the two guys… and in the last hours, we were treated to further proof of all that.
Basically, on Monday (while Kuznetsov stole the show), Demidov had trouble with an opposing player. The two guys talked into each other’s eyes, and we saw the kid have a dog.
Here’s the sequence, for those who missed it:
In the sequence, Demidov was penalized… but earlier this year, Kuznetsov said (jokingly) that he was going to punish Demidov himself if the latter received another nasty penalty.
And this one goes in there.
Journalists in Russia asked Kuznetsov if he was going to reprimand his young teammate… and his response was quite comical:
He only earns a few pennies, I can’t punish him financially. – Evgeny Kuznetsov
Obviously, he says it mainly as a joke, and he adds that he will rather take advantage of it for himself put it in the face. He also adds that he didn’t mind seeing the youngster demonstrate a bit of dog, and that he wants to help him control these moments.
That said, given that we know that SKA made contract extension offers to Demidov (which the youngster refused), we can wonder if we are trying to encourage him to sign by offering him a big raise salary. Salaries in the KHL are not public, so it is difficult to know how much the youngster earns per year.
But based on Kuznetsov, who is one of the big earners in the league, Demidov isn’t making a ton of money in Russia. He must be looking forward to arriving in America to sign a bigger contract.
In burst
– Interesting.
– The two young Sharks forwards are making life difficult for Tyler Toffoli.
– Will he be able to defeat the Steelers?
