Snapshots: Boikov, Morrow, Kings

The Colorado Avalanche won’t be bringing Sergei Boikov back for another season in the AHL, at least not in 2019-20. The 23-year old defenseman has returned to the KHL to play for Dynamo Moscow, signing a two-year contract. Boikov is a restricted free agent for the time being, and since Colorado issued him a qualifying offer they will retain his exclusive rights.

Selected in the sixth round of the 2015 draft, Boikov had already been playing in North America for two seasons. He remained for another year in the QMJHL before jumping to the professional ranks, where he has suited up the last two seasons for Colorado’s AHL affiliate. The 6’2″ defenseman has some upside as a shutdown defender, but will try to take his offensive game to another level back in Russia.

• The Dallas Stars have announced several changes to the business side of the front office, including hiring former captain Brenden Morrow as the Director of Business and Hockey Development. Morrow played 835 regular season games for the Stars across parts of 13 seasons, captaining them for seven of those. He finished his career with 575 points in 991 games. A gold medalist at the Olympics, World Championship and World Cup, Morrow certainly has a winning pedigree when it comes to hockey.
• Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times expects there to be at least one restricted free agent signing by the Los Angeles Kings today, which makes sense given it is the final day those who were issued qualifying offers can accept them. Adrian Kempe, Matt Roy, Michael Amadio, Sheldon Rempal, Daniel Brickley and Calvin Petersen are all still unsigned, and even the ones who were eligible (Petersen, Roy) did not file for arbitration. The team already has 43 contracts on the books, but maintains some flexibility since several of those will not count towards the total as they are headed back to their junior or European clubs.