Monday: The deal has officially been announced. Voynov will return to the KHL for one season.
Sunday: While Slava Voynov was hoping to return to the NHL for the upcoming season, that won’t be the case. Sport-Express’ Igor Eronko reports (Twitter link) that the defenseman has agreed to a one-year contract with Avangard Omsk of the KHL.
It will be his first action since 2017-18 as Voynov sat out all of last season while he tried to get back into the NHL. That never came to fruition and back in April, he was suspended for the entirety of the 2019-20 season as additional punishment from his domestic abuse incident back in 2014; that initial conviction was dismissed three years later. Meanwhile, his suspension was cut in half back in May.
The Kings continue to hold Voynov’s NHL rights and have indicated that they have no intentions of trying to bring him back. It appears that no other team wanted to trade for those rights so Voynov will now return home for next season. It’s worth noting that out clauses are not permissible in KHL deals so don’t expect him to try to catch on with an NHL team midseason once his suspension is up. It appears that his return, if there’s ever going to be one, won’t be until 2020-21 at the earliest.
Persona non grata