BROSSARD, Quebec — When Ivan Demidov was a young boy growing up in Dmitrov, Russia, just outside Moscow, his typical day involved three separate sessions on the ice. He would skate in the morning, go to school, come home to eat, skate again in the afternoon, come home for dinner, do some homework, and then skate on the outdoor rink until it was time to go to bed.That daily routine was done with a singular goal in mind. And that goal had nothing to do with making $73.2 million, which is exactly what Demidov will be paid over the eight-year contract extension he signed with the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday as the rest of the NHL was busy signing free agents.That contract will count for $9.15 million annually on the Canadiens’ salary cap — a number Demidov is likely to outperform in the first year of that contract in 2027-28, let alone what he will do for the next seven.But that is what will help the Canadiens win, and that is what Demidov had as a goal doing those three-a-days as a boy in Russia.“I think everyone thinks about money. It’s the truth. Obviously, money’s a big part of your life because without it, you can’t have something, you know?” Demidov said Wednesday. “But for me, the main thing is hockey. It’s No. 1 in my life. That’s what I think, and money is never going to be over hockey in my life.”Demidov will receive an $11.5 million signing bonus on July 1, 2027 — exactly the same bonus Demidov’s good friend and teammate Lane Hutson received on Wednesday — and by Nov. 1, 2029, Demidov will have received $32.5 million in bonus money alone. He will turn 24 a little over a month later.So before we start talking about the sacrifices Demidov is making to benefit the Canadiens and their ability to win, that needs to be kept in mind. He is not someone who comes from money, his family made great sacrifices to nurture his hockey talent, and this is the payoff.But the reality is Demidov could have tried to make more. He could have waited and dragged this out. But he had no interest in doing so.Why? Because he wanted to get back to work.“It was so easy for me because I want to just, you know, put those paper things out and just go (for) training,” Demidov said. “That’s what I want to do and what I’m going to do.”And early Wednesday morning, he was on the ice at the Canadiens’ training facility, working on his game with Hutson.That is the beauty of this contract for the Canadiens: the two richest members of their young core are that hungry in early July. And this deal completes that core, with Demidov and Hutson’s salary cap hit combining for $18 million. When you add in Nick Suzuki ($7.875 million through 2030), Cole Caufield ($7.85 million, 2031), Juraj Slafkovský ($7.6 million, 2033), Noah Dobson ($9.5 million, 2033), Mike Matheson ($6 million, 2031) and Kaiden Guhle ($5.5 million, 2031), that equates to having your top four forwards and top four defencemen all under contract through 2030 for a total just under $63 million.The salary cap in 2027-28, when Demidov’s contract will kick in, is projected to be $113.5 million. The Canadiens will have those top eight players taking up a shade under 55 percent of that cap, and progressively less with each progressive year until Suzuki’s contract expires in 2030.That puts pressure on Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes to use the savings those players are providing them to build a winning team around them. As Hughes and Demidov were addressing the media Wednesday afternoon, signings across the NHL were being announced in real time. With each announcement, it became clearer why this was the only NHL contract of note the Canadiens were signing. Gorton and Hughes have an obligation to these players now, and they know that.But the obligation is to use that money wisely, for the right player that complements this group and puts the Canadiens to a new level.“I would like to reward what they’ve done for this team by giving them the best chance to win,” Hughes said. “And the sooner the better, as long as that’s what we’re doing, giving them a better chance to win. I don’t want to do something that turns out to actually serve as an impediment to that objective (when) I thought it was helping it.”Despite all the player movement in the NHL over the last two weeks, the Canadiens still don’t feel they have necessarily missed out on something because there hasn’t been a player that moved they felt would help that objective. They would have liked to sign Mason Marchment in free agency, but the five years of term he got in San Jose was not going to work for them, and Marchment probably preferred going to San Jose in any case.But what’s vital for Gorton and Hughes is not to find this player — or players — the sooner the better, it’s finding the right one. As much as the Canadiens players left some money on the table in an effort to win, using it to bring in the wrong player would probably be more upsetting to the group than waiting for that right player.This signing has now created a clear and definable window for the Canadiens to enter contention mode, and it is tied to Suzuki’s contract, which is appropriate since it is that contract — signed by Marc Bergevin as a gift to the current administration — that established the salary structure that ultimately led to the Demidov signing. Caufield and Slafkovský coming in under Suzuki’s cap number established that culture, and the Hutson signing last year laid the groundwork for the Demidov contract.Suzuki’s next contract could conceivably be double what he is making now when the salary cap could be approaching $130 million, and these team-friendly contracts will begin expiring with each successive year. If everything goes according to plan, those contracts will not be nearly as team-friendly anymore from that point onward.Between now and then, the Canadiens have a window of financial flexibility, of still-ascending young talent in Slafkovský, Hutson and Demidov that will hit their primes while Suzuki, Caufield and Dobson are still in theirs. Add an underbelly of promising prospects that hold trade value around the league and can serve to fill holes organically in the medium term.Managing that window will be the most delicate task Gorton and Hughes have faced since arriving more than four years ago. What they have done to date is admirable. This rebuild has gone quicker than anyone could have imagined.But looking around the NHL, with the principal player movement windows of the draft and the opening of free agency now behind us, the players the Canadiens could possibly add to reach their objectives don’t appear to be abundant. But, again, they are managing a four-year window, and while there is a sense of urgency to do something this offseason, there will be other opportunities to add finishing pieces in the next 12 months as well.“I think you are describing an environment that is specific to the present, with a salary cap that is moving up in the future,” Hughes said of the dearth of impact players on the market. “I don’t expect it will always remain the same, and I’m not convinced either that all players want to stay with their teams. We’ve seen several big names request trades. We need to be able to react when the time comes, and in the meantime continue to explore things. We don’t need to read on Twitter that someone is available to call GMs and ask if they’re ready to listen to us. We’ll keep doing that, and at some point we’ll get one done.”It is appropriate that Demidov’s contract clearly defines the Canadiens’ window and cements their financial flexibility because finding him a linemate is probably at the top of their offseason wishlist. There is a widely held belief across the NHL that the normal routine of general managers heading off to the lake and turning off their phones in mid-July is a thing of the past. There will be activity this summer, because teams want to improve just as much as the Canadiens do, and several haven’t yet because the free-agent market was not a good avenue for that.The Canadiens, Hughes reiterated Wednesday, are trying to improve through their deep well of prospects, but there are many teams in a similar position that want to take a step and need more immediate help. But there are a few rebuilds going on, and those rebuilding teams do have players that could provide immediate help — if not to the Canadiens, then perhaps to the teams the Canadiens are attempting to complete trades with.The discount Demidov gave the Canadiens on Wednesday follows a long line of discounts in that dressing room, an investment from those players in a shiny ring and a shiny trophy.It is now Gorton and Hughes’ turn to provide a return on that investment.“We’re going to make this team better, I have no concerns about that,” Hughes said. “But I can’t tell you when it is. I’ll know when it is, I’ll know when a deal is right and we have a dance partner. But we won’t do a dumb trade or a dumb move that might appease the passionate fanbase on a short-term basis and then a year later they’re like, ‘What the hell did they just get us into?’“We hope we have their patience to trust we’re going to continue to try and push this thing forward.”