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Alexander Burmistrov Re-Signs In KHL

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The Atlanta Thrashers had a very hot-and-cold drafting record during their years in the league. Patrik Stefan, the team’s very first pick, is infamous for his status as a bust (though he did play more than 450 games in the league), thanks in part to a missed open net. But the next year the team picked Dany Heatley and his 791 career points. It would continue to bounce back and forth between success and failure at the top of the draft alternating between Bryan Little and Boris Valabik.

The very last first-round pick they made, in 2010, fell closer to the failure side, at least in terms of NHL production. Alexander Burmistrov, selected eighth overall, would end up scoring just 101 NHL points before returning to the KHL in 2018. He has continued to play there ever since, and today switched teams, terminating his deal with Ak Bars Kazan to join Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

It’s been a disappointing season for Burmistrov, with just three points in 26 games for Ak Bars. The 31-year-old hasn’t been much of an offensive producer in recent years, but did win the Gagarin Cup in 2018. Regardless of how well he plays overseas, Thrashers (and Winnipeg Jets) fans will remember the frustrating talent that couldn’t put it all together a decade ago.

A return to North American hockey seems completely off the table at this point, as even Burmistrov’s KHL career appears to be winding down.

Minor Transactions: 12/21/22

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The NHL’s holiday roster freeze is in place, meaning teams are restricted from trading, waiving, loaning, or otherwise moving their players for the next week. However, that roster freeze doesn’t extend to all foreign and minor leagues, meaning there are still some moves from outside the NHL that are worth tracking. We’ll mark those down here.

  • Former San Jose Sharks goalie prospect Alexei Melnichuk signed a one-year, two-way (KHL/VHL) contract with KHL club Avangard Omsk, per a team announcement. Should he get into a game in Omsk, it would be Melnichuk’s third KHL team of the season, having already played for HC Sochi and Traktor Chelyabinsk. Melnichuk, 24, last played in the NHL in 2020-21, getting into three games for the Sharks, and spent time in 2021-22 with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda and ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears.
  • Minor league defenseman Nick Albano has left the Belleville Senators to sign a one-year contract with Vasteras IK, a club in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Albano, 26, is an undrafted product out of UMass Boston that has played the last two seasons as an AHL/ECHL journeyman with five different teams.
  • William Rapuzzi, an accomplished veteran scorer of the European pro hockey circuit, has switched clubs. The 32-year-old Alaska native is departing HC Slovan Bratislava, where he has played just three games in the last four months, to sign with EHC Olten in the Swiss League, the second tier of pro hockey in Switzerland. The signing is a major coup for Olten, the current league leaders, as Rapuzzi scored a whopping 55 points in just 38 games the last time he played in the Swiss League.
  • The QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads have made a major trade, acquiring Alexandre Doucet from the Val d’Or Foreurs. Doucet is the league’s second-highest scorer, his 53 points in 37 games behind only Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Jordan Dumais and his 61 points in 28 games. The move helps Halifax, who are currently third in the QMJHL standings, compete this year, while the tenth-place Foreurs add some draft picks.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Nikita Soshnikov Signs In KHL

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We have probably seen the last of Nikita Soshnikov. After his contract was terminated by the New York Islanders, the minor league forward officially signed with HC Traktor in the KHL. The new deal will continue through the 2023-24 season, meaning he would be 31 by the time a return to North America was possible.

Like so many other undrafted Russian forwards, Soshnikov showed NHL-level talent but found it difficult to carve out a regular role in the league. After putting up a 32-point season for Moscow Oblast Atlant in 2014-15, he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs and quickly rose the depth chart.

That year, he scored 18 goals for the Toronto Marlies but also had five points in 11 games with the rebuilding Maple Leafs. The next season, as the club turned to an extremely young lineup, he played in 56 NHL games but was only able to record nine points.

It still seemed like he would stick, but that season ended up being more than half of his career appearances. A few more games for Toronto, an unsuccessful stint in St. Louis, and Soshnikov was back to the KHL, where he once again showed he could score at a high level.

This season he tried the NHL again, convinced by Lou Lamoriello for a second time, and ended up in just three games with the Islanders. For his career, Soshnikov scored 16 points in 90 games.

Latest On Matvei Michkov

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Dec 20: SKA has officially announced the loan, sending Michkov to Sochi for the rest of the year.

Dec 19: As the 2023 World Junior Championship gets closer, hockey fans are focused on the next wave of talent. Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli will show why they are expected to go at the very top of next year’s draft, while competing against the best players in their age group from all over the world.

Well, not all over the world. Russia has been banned from the upcoming tournament because of its invasion of Ukraine, meaning Matvei Michkov – another top prospect – won’t get to compete.

Instead, Michkov is set to join the worst team in the KHL for the rest of the season as reports out of Russia have him loaned to HC Sochi. Though it may seem like a demotion, given his place with powerhouse club SKA St. Petersburg, it should allow the young forward to actually receive some regular playing time. So far this year he has played just a handful of shifts in the KHL, spending most of his time in the VHL, where he has 10 goals in 12 games.

Michkov, 18, is a very interesting prospect when it comes to the draft. Compared to Alex Ovechkin at times as he grew up, there is an expectation that he will become the next face of Russian hockey. If there weren’t other complicating factors, he would be pushing Bedard for the first overall selection.

The biggest of those factors is his contract, which will keep him in Russia through the 2025-26 season. This loan to Sochi does not extend or shorten his deal with SKA; it only gives him an opportunity to play through the end of the year.

Any team that selects him will have to wait, and though he is expected to come to North America when his contract is up, there is no guarantee of that just yet.

This opportunity, though, will be able to give NHL front offices a bit of a closer look (at least through video) before committing to a several-year wait. If he can show off for Sochi, even in a losing effort – the club is dead last in the KHL – the hype surrounding his future will only increase.

Minor Transactions: 12/15/22

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It’ll be a busy night on the NHL schedule tonight as 24 of the league’s 32 clubs will do battle. Among the many contests are a few games that look like they’ll be especially entertaining, such as the New York Rangers taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs and the red-hot Pittsburgh Penguins going up against a Florida Panthers squad looking to spark some sustained positive momentum. As we keep track of this flurry of action tonight, we’ll also track notable transactions in minor leagues and foreign leagues. Those moves can be found here:

  • 2016 Rangers sixth-round pick Tyler Wall signed a one-year AHL contract with the Hershey Bears, the top affiliate of the Washington Capitals, today. While Wall, 24, couldn’t quite carve out a consistent role in the Rangers organization after a successful four-year collegiate career at UMass-Lowell, he now has an AHL contract in hand and the rest of the season to put some quality starts on his resume for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays.
  • Quinton Howden, a 2010 first-round pick of the Florida Panthers, was released from his tryout contract with Jukurit, a team in the Finnish Liiga. Howden scored just one point in ten games for Jukurit despite playing middle-six minutes and getting a chance on their power play. Howden, 30, scored 18 points in 45 games last season for Cologne in the German DEL and will look for a contract with another club to continue his pro career.
  • J.D. Dudek, a 2014 fourth-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils, signed a one-year contract with the Coventry Blaze, a team in the Elite Ice Hockey League, the United Kingdom’s top pro hockey league. The 26-year-old went overseas this summer after two seasons in the ECHL, signing with Tranas AIF in the third tier of Swedish hockey. The former Boston College Eagle had eight points in 14 games in Sweden and will look to keep that solid scoring up as he joins a new league.
  • Nando Eggenberger, a former NHL draft prospect who three times represented his native Switzerland at the World Junior Championships, signed a two-year contract with Swiss club HC Ambri-Piotta. The deal will begin next season, as Eggenberger will finish out 2022-23 with his current club, Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. The former Oshawa General has seven points in 29 games so far this season.
  • Another Swiss club announced the signing of a young forward to a two-year contract beginning next season: the ZSC Lions. Per their announcement, they signed forward Yannick Zehnder, currently of EV Zug, to a two-year, 2023-2025 contract. Zehnder is a Swiss champion who has six points in 27 games so far this season.
  • Talented veteran defenseman Nick Bailen saw his KHL rights change hands today, with Spartak Moscow acquiring them from Traktor Chelyabinsk in exchange for 27-year-old blueliner Alexander Bryntsev. While Bailen, 33, is currently playing for Cologne in the DEL, he has 367 KHL games on his resume, including a brilliant 2021-22 season where he scored 42 points in 49 games. If Bailen makes the choice to return to the KHL, it seems now he’ll have to do so in Moscow.
  • Veteran KHL depth defenseman Ruslan Ibatullin had his contract with KHL side Admiral Vladivostok terminated today. The 28-year-old had set a career-high in KHL games played this season, getting into 34 contests in Vladivostok. In need of a new contract, it’s likely that Ibatullin will return to playing in the second-tier VHL, the league where he has spent the bulk of his professional career.

Snapshots: Blackhawks, Boeser, Boucher

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The Chicago Blackhawks are the team to watch when it comes to selling at the trade deadline, with so much focus on Patrick Kane’s potential destination. Scott Powers of The Athletic examined the situation regarding Kane and Jonathan Toews, but also touched on the trade market for lesser players like Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou.

Signing those two always seemed like a move destined to lead to trade deadline flips, but the Blackhawks may not get as much as they think for them. One executive told Powers that Domi and Athanasiou would likely cost third or fourth-round picks in a trade, though admitted things can change if teams get “desperate.”

Mario Kempe Signs In SHL

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It’s been a few years since Mario Kempe was suiting up in the NHL and it appears as though a return to North America isn’t ever going to come. The veteran forward has signed a new two-year deal with Lulea HF in Sweden.

Kempe, 34, has spent the last three seasons in the KHL, after playing 52 games for the Arizona Coyotes in 2018-19. The older brother of Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe, he was a fifth-round pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2007 that only ever played eight games for the organization, all at the minor league level. An elite skater, he had lots of success in North America, including two seasons with the St. John’s Fog Devils of the QMJHL, but never seemed content to spend his years in the AHL.

Throughout his career, Kempe has played all over the world, suiting up last season in Belarus with Dinamo Minsk. His return to the SHL is a long-awaited homecoming, given he hasn’t played in Sweden since 2014.

A two-year deal essentially removes any chance of another AHL stint, though it seemed unlikely already. In 70 career NHL games, Kempe scored 13 points.

Tomas Jurco Signs In KHL

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For a long time, Tomas Jurco was one of those players who couldn’t seem to find a fit in the NHL despite outstanding AHL performances. The Detroit Red Wings draft pick burst onto the scene quickly after being selected 35th overall in 2011, but wasn’t able to hold on.

Now, with his last NHL appearance nearly two years ago, it seems his time in North America may be over.

The 29-year-old forward has signed another contract in the KHL, this one with Kunlun Red Star. Jurco played for Barys Nur-Sultan (who are back to Astana now) last season, scoring 11 points in 17 games.

One may have concluded that playing in the KHL was so that Jurco could take part in the Olympics, as he helped Slovakia qualify and then was part of their historic bronze medal performance. But a new NHL contract hasn’t followed, and he’ll now have a short season in China for 2022-23. The season there starts early, and Kunlun has already played 35 games – winning just 12 of them.

In 221 career games, Jurco scored 22 goals and 53 points, most of that production coming at the very beginning of his time in the NHL. He hasn’t scored a goal at that level since 2018, and it looks like he might not get another chance. A two-time Calder Cup champion, if Jurco ever does return to North America, it seems likely that it will be as an AHL player at this point.

Minor Transactions: 11/22/22

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It’s a relatively quiet day on the NHL schedule with just four teams set to go to battle tonight. The Montreal Canadiens will be taking on the division rival Buffalo Sabres as the Sabres look to end their eight-game losing streak. Then, the Los Angeles Kings will host the New York Rangers as each team looks to build momentum and chase the teams above them in the standings. As the NHL readies for these contests, teams across the hockey world are making tweaks to their roster. We’ll keep track of all those moves here.

  • Alex Grant, a former Anaheim Duck and Arizona Coyote, is switching KHL teams. Kazakh club Barys Astana has announced that Grant has been moved to the team from his current KHL club, SKA St. Petersburg. Grant represented Canada at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and has six points in 16 KHL games this season.
  • Veteran minor-league defenseman Robert Hamilton is headed overseas. The 28-year-old blueliner has signed a two-year deal with KHL club Traktor Chelyabinsk and will leave his current team, the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, in order to play there. Hamilton bounced between the AHL and ECHL levels after ending his collegiate career at the University of Vermont, and in recent years had established himself firmly as an AHL-caliber player. Now, he’ll continue his career in Russia.
  • Maxim Chudinov, a veteran KHL defenseman with nearly 600 games of experience, is changing clubs. The 32-year-old has left Ak Bars Kazan to sign a deal for the rest of the season with Spartak Moscow. Chudinov, a 2010 seventh-round pick of the Boston Bruins, has played in seven games for Ak Bars Kazan and has registered one assist.
  • After scoring 18 goals and 38 points last season for IK Oskarshamn, Kim Rosdahl signed with another SHL club, Rogle BK. His time in Rogle hasn’t gone as planned, though, and with just three points in 17 games Rosdahl is headed elsewhere. The Malmo Redhawks have announced his signing to a two-year deal, meaning Rosdahl will head back to Malmo, which is his hometown and where he developed as a junior player.
  • Another winger who has been off to a tough start this season is changing clubs. Per a team announcement, 25-year-old forward Jordan Kaplan is headed from the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals to the Reading Royals. Kaplan has just one assist in 11 ECHL games so far this year but had 11 goals and 32 points in 65 games for the Adirondack Thunder last year.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Colorado Avalanche Suspend Danila Zhuravlyov, Returns To Russia

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Colorado Avalanche defense prospect Danila Zhuravlyov has been suspended by the team and will return home to Russia, as announced today. Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater reports the suspension is not related to any on-ice or off-ice incident, but rather comes as a result of his returning to Russia for “personal and family-related reasons.”

There had been rumors swirling of Zhuravlyov potentially returning to his home country for the past month, mainly from Russian outlets. Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express reported last week that Zhuravlyov’s former KHL club, Ak Bars Kazan, was aiming to have the 22-year-old return to the club.

A 2018 fifth-round selection of the Avalanche, Zhuravlyov made his North American debut this season and registered an assist in 14 games with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. He demonstrated solid defensive upside in the past handful of seasons with Kazan.

Zhuravlyov’s entry-level contract runs through the 2023-24 season. If it becomes clear that Zhuravlyov will not return to the Avalanche organization, a mutual termination is entirely possible.

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