August 25: Galchenyuk has indeed signed in the KHL, although it’s not with the expected team. He’s joining SKA St. Petersburg on a two-year contract, according to the team. Galchenyuk recently took a plea deal for a misdemeanor charge as part of the July incident, which resulted in five other charges against him being dropped, per Katie Strang of The Athletic.
August 6: Per a report out of Russia, free agent forward Alex Galchenyuk is likely to sign with the KHL’s Spartak Moscow this summer. Galchenyuk had signed a one-year deal with the Arizona Coyotes when NHL free agency opened on July 1, but the team terminated his contract over a week later after Galchenyuk was arrested on a number of charges, which included a private property hit-and-run and resisting arrest. The 29-year-old issued public apologies to the Coyotes organization and the Scottsdale, Arizona, police department and is currently in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
Galchenyuk, who has now amassed over 650 NHL games over an 11-season career, played a career-low 11 NHL games last season for the Colorado Avalanche and spent most of the campaign in the minors. Returning to the Coyotes would have brought him back to the organization where he’s had his most productive seasons since the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted him third overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, dealt him away in 2018. Formerly a 30-goal scorer, Galchenyuk was held off the scoresheet entirely in his games with Colorado last season, but he did post 16 goals, 26 assists and 42 points in 42 games while in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles.
Even in limited minutes with Colorado last season, Galchenyuk no longer looked comfortable in NHL action. Averaging just 7:06 per game, Galchenyuk posted a rather horrid relative Corsi for percentage at even strength of -11.6. Head coach Jared Bednar’s usage of him likely didn’t help matters, though. He started just 39.2% of his zone starts at even strength in the offensive zone, by far a career low.
It’s unclear for how long Galchenyuk is expected to sign with Moscow, but after his arrest and lack of sustainable NHL play last season, it’s conceivable he plays the rest of his pro career overseas. Galchenyuk was born in the United States and has represented the U.S. internationally, but was born to Belarusian parents and is fluent in Russian. He has never played professionally in Russia, however. If he does indeed join Spartak, he’d line up alongside a forward corps ripe with former NHLers, including Alexander Burmistrov, Nikolay Goldobin, Andrei Loktionov, and Shane Prince.
Vested full pension. Go home.
His NHL are days over. A once talented young player that seemed to go downhill in recent years. Till he really went downhill.
“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.” -A Bronx Tale
Before anybody tries to carp on @Dave about going home, EP shows him with dual citizenship, for both USA and Russia, although I think that should be changed to Belarus, where they show his Dad’s citizenship, unless that is inaccurate now, too. He was born in Wisconsin, because his Dad was playing with the Admirals at the time. Either way, it’s time for him to play elsewhere, on the KHL tour.
while your right his dad is Belarusian his dad might be one of the many that are Russian and live in belarus. there are a lot of “russian” people living in mass in other countries that used to be part of the soviet block. long and short after the fall of the ussr and putin’s use of flooding areas with russians has really blurred the lines of who is from where
Belarus is a semi-autonomous province of Russia
I believe Galchenyuk will do well in Russia. I wish him nothing but the best!
There’s always the Russian army. Drink and fight all you want.
And lose, badly. You forgot that part.
Disappointed he didn’t “call Moscow” but St Petersburg instead.
Hope he stays away from and doesn’t influence rookie SKA teammate Michkov. Too much Vodka in Russia for this to turn out well.