diff --git a/src/transformers/generation/candidate_generator.py b/src/transformers/generation/candidate_generator.py
index ccd4b5508410..138aa9144e1d 100644
--- a/src/transformers/generation/candidate_generator.py
+++ b/src/transformers/generation/candidate_generator.py
@@ -453,15 +453,17 @@ def get_candidates(self, input_ids: torch.LongTensor) -> Tuple[torch.LongTensor,
             assessed by the model and a `torch.FloatTensor` of shape `(batch_size, candidate_length,
             vocabulary_size)` containing the logits associated to each candidate.
         """
+        max_new_tokens = int(self.num_assistant_tokens)
+        if max_new_tokens == 0:
+            return input_ids, None
+        
         input_ids = input_ids.to(self.assistant_model.device)
         remove_from_pkv = 0
 
         assistant_input_ids, remove_from_pkv = self._prepare_assistant_input_ids(input_ids)
         self.prev_assistant_ids = assistant_input_ids
 
-        min_new_tokens, max_new_tokens = self._calculate_new_tokens(assistant_input_ids)
-        if max_new_tokens == 0:
-            return input_ids, None
+        min_new_tokens = max(min(max_new_tokens, self.main_model_min_length - assistant_input_ids.shape[-1]), 0)
 
         self._update_past_and_masks(assistant_input_ids, remove_from_pkv)
         generation_args = self._prepare_generation_args(assistant_input_ids, min_new_tokens, max_new_tokens)