After terminating his contract with Metallurg Magnitogorsk yesterday, Sergei Plotnikov has found a new KHL home. The veteran forward has signed a one-year contract with CSKA Moscow for the 2021-22 season.
Plotnikov, 31, played one season in the NHL, splitting time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes in 2015-16. Despite strong offensive numbers overseas and internationally, he managed just three points (all assists) in his 45 NHL games.
Like his former teammate Sergei Mozyakin, who retired yesterday, this is a career spent almost entirely in Russia. Plotnikov has amassed 325 points in 568 career KHL games, which actually puts him 23rd all-time. He actually just had his best season with 43 points in 2020-21, which could have easily drawn some new NHL interest. For now, at least, that doesn’t matter, but it will be interesting to see if his name comes up again in a year’s time.
This dude was useless.
Jimmy turned him into Rob Klinkhammer, then paired him with a first and got David Perron, a really good player who stunk here. But, THEN, he turned Perron into Carl Hagelin, who changed our entire team and sparked the only back to back Cup wins in the cap era*.
*For another day or three, at least.