Colorado Avalanche 2023 first-round pick Mikhail Gulyayev has signed a two-year, two-way contract extension with the KHL’s Avangard Omsk, according to the league’s official transactions wire.
Gulyayev’s KHL contract was set to expire this summer. This extension confirms that the defenseman will remain in Russia through the 2027-28 season, meaning the earliest he could officially sign with the Avalanche would be for 2028-29, his age-23 campaign.
The Avalanche hold Gulyayev’s rights indefinitely, so there is no pressure to sign him to an entry-level deal before a certain point in order to preserve his exclusive signing rights.
The 21-year-old was selected by the Avalanche No. 31 overall at the 2023 NHL Draft, with a pick they acquired from the Montreal Canadiens as part of the Alex Newhook trade.
At the time, it seemed the Avalanche may have had a steal on their hands with Gulyayev, at least considering where he was ranked entering the draft. He was No. 23 on Bob McKenzie’s list for TSN, and No. 21 overall in the rankings of Scott Wheeler of The Athletic.
Gulyayev split his draft campaign between the KHL, Russia’s top minor league, the VHL, and the top junior league in the MHL. Since then, he has played three campaigns as a regular in the KHL for Omsk.
While he remains ranked as one of the top prospects in the Avalanche system, (No. 3 in the most recent ranking by Wheeler) the pace of his development has concerned some scouts. Wheeler wrote in March that Gulyayev “has struggled to take that next step beyond just being a depth guy” in the KHL. As his ice time fell compared to last season, so did his production. Gulyayev scored 15 points in 2024-25, but had just three in 2025-26.
Wheeler also wrote that Gulyayev “needs to get over to North America” to maximize his development and chances of becoming an impactful NHL player, but that will now not happen for at least two more seasons.
While Avalanche fans are likely also itching to see Gulyayev cross the Atlantic and join their organization in North America, it did not appear to be as pressing of a priority to Gulyayev. He was invited to the team’s development camp last summer, but opted to remain in Russia to prepare for the season, in contrast to fellow KHL prospect Ilya Nabokov, who attended development camp. Nabokov had signed his entry-level deal in May of that year.
Last summer, when Gulyayev was asked by Sergey Demidov of RG.org about his timeline to sign an entry-level deal, the player was non-committal, saying “right now I can’t say anything concrete.”
With the news of the two-year extension, his window to join the Avalanche will be pushed back an additional two seasons. The hope will be that with a level of continuity in Omsk, he can rebound after a difficult 2025-26 season and develop to the point of being NHL-ready by the time his extension expires.
Photos courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
That’s the risk you always take when you draft Russian players. Unless you are willing to offer more than the standard ELC they can probably stay in Russia and make more money than a 3 year starter NHL deal. The Hawks are paying Kantserov a bit over the minimum to come over. I don’t know how much he was making in Russia but I’m assuming it’s at least competitive to what the Hawks offered. It’s a gamble for sure but it can pay off later when you can offer more money than an ELC.