Oilers prospect Ilya Konovalov hasn’t had a great first season in North America and it appears he won’t be getting a second one as Dynamo Moscow’s GM Alexei Sopin told Championat’s Sergei Yemelanov that an agreement is in place to bring the netminder back to the KHL next season. The move is pending a contract termination from Edmonton which is expected to come once their playoff run comes to an end.
The 23-year-old was a third-round pick of Edmonton back in 2019, going 85th overall. He remained with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL for two seasons after being picked before opting to come to North America for this season. However, Konovalov was limited to just 17 games with AHL Bakersfield this season, posting a 2.73 GAA with a save percentage of just .893. He was briefly up with Edmonton on their taxi squad but didn’t get into any NHL action.
This move has been in the works for a while as last month, Dynamo Moscow traded for Konovalov’s rights at the beginning of the KHL’s transactions window. Assuming the termination goes through as planned which should come sometime later this month, Edmonton will lose Konovalov’s NHL rights but free up a contract slot. They’d also clear out the logjam in the AHL crease with both Olivier Rodrigue and recent college signing Ryan Fanti already under contract for next season.