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CSKA Moscow Signs Nikita Okhotyuk, Ivan Prosvetov, Dmitri Samorukov

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Kontinental Hockey League club CSKA Moscow is hard at work today getting their 2024-25 roster set in stone. After making a trio of rumored signings official earlier in the day, they’ve made three more. Flames RFA defenseman Nikita Okhotyuk, as well as free-agent netminder Ivan Prosvetov and defender Dmitri Samorukov, are headed to the Russian capital per separate team announcements on Telegram. It’s a two-year deal for Okhotyuk and three-year deals for Prosvetov and Samorukov.

Okhotyuk’s signing was initially reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger all the way back in May. It’s part of a rush of deals that CSKA is trying to get under the wire before a 24-month international transfer ban, imposed by the IIHF as part of the sanctions levied toward them for violating the Flyers’ valid contract with netminder Ivan Fedotov last summer, goes into effect on Aug. 11. But whether that transfer ban will be enforceable remains to be seen after the KHL voted last month to make themselves independent from both the IIHF and the Russian Hockey Federation.

A second-round pick of the Devils in 2019, Okhotyuk played only 15 games for New Jersey before he was dealt to the Sharks in last year’s Timo Meier trade. The 6’1″ defender spent most of last season in the NHL, posting a goal and seven assists for eight points in 43 games for San Jose with a -22 rating, averaging 16:27 per contest. His brief tenure in California came to an end on deadline day, when he was traded to the Flames for a 2024 fifth-round pick. He played sparingly for Calgary down the stretch, posting an assist and a -2 rating in nine games.

Since Calgary issued him a qualifying offer, they’ll still hold Okhotyuk’s NHL signing rights when his deal with CSKA expires in 2026. If he opts to return to the NHL at that time, it’ll need to be with the Flames unless they trade his rights. Calgary will hold his rights until his 27th birthday, meaning Okhotyuk could become an unrestricted free agent on Dec. 4, 2027, if he waits to make an NHL comeback until after that date.

Prosvetov, 25, became a Group VI UFA this summer after spending last season with the Avalanche. A report out of Russia back in April indicated he’d be heading to CSKA. The former fourth-round pick of the Coyotes played a career-high 11 games last season, spending significant time as the No. 2 option in Colorado behind Alexandar Georgiev before Justus Annunen passed him on the depth chart. He was passable but still below-average with a 4-3-1 record, .895 SV% and 3.16 GAA.

The Moscow native hasn’t played in his home country since the 2015-16 campaign, when he suited up for a local U-17 club. He was excellent in AHL action with the Avs’ affiliate, posting a .921 SV% in 21 games, and likely would have had NHL offers if he decided to stay in North America. But it’s clear his mind has been set on returning home for the entirety of the offseason.

Samorukov, meanwhile, is the only member of the trio not to see NHL ice last season. The 2017 third-round pick of the Oilers began the season on an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The 25-year-old eventually landed a two-way deal with Pittsburgh in November, but he never received a call-up and wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer at the end of the season. He last suited up for CSKA while on loan to them for the 2020-21 season, when he posted eight points and a +24 rating in 48 games. He had 15 points and a +7 rating in 64 games for the Baby Pens last year.

Devils Notes: Fletcher, Greene, Legace, Sanderson, Fitzgerald

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The Devils announced multiple front-office hirings today, leading off with former Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher being named as a senior advisor to GM Tom Fitzgerald.

It’s the first NHL role for Fletcher since he was fired from his post in Philadelphia in March 2023. The 57-year-old has worked with the Devils before, briefly serving as a senior advisor to ex-GM Ray Shero for the first few months of the 2018-19 campaign before he was named GM of the Flyers. Before that, the longtime executive has served as GM of the Wild (2009-2018), assistant GM for the Penguins (2006-2009), assistant GM for the Ducks (2002-2006), and assistant and interim GM for the Panthers (1993-2002).

Fletcher will advise Fitzgerald “on hockey operations matters including player personnel, scouting, and contracts,” the team said. Fletcher was in the front office during Fitzgerald’s time as a player in Florida from 1993 to 1998. The pair also worked together in Pittsburgh for Fletcher’s last two seasons there while Fitzgerald served as their director of player development.

More on the Devils’ hirings today:

  • Former captain Andy Greene is returning to the organization as a hockey operations advisor. The 41-year-old has been without an official title for two years after retiring following the 2021-22 season, but the team said he’s been around the game “attending Devils’ practices, working with the coaching staff and scouting minor-league, college games, and Devils’ prospects.” Greene played over 900 games for the Devils from 2007 to 2020 before being dealt to the Islanders, where he played out the final two and a half seasons of his career. He’ll now work with both Fitzgerald and the hockey operations department at large while “working with the scouting and player personnel departments, coaching staff, and pro and amateur scouting staffs,” per the team.
  • Longtime NHL netminder Manny Legace is also joining New Jersey as their head amateur goaltending scout and development coach, working alongside former rival Martin Brodeur. The 51-year-old previously served as the Blue Jackets’ goaltending coach from 2018 to 2023. He was the backup for the Red Wings when they won the Stanley Cup in 2002 and posted a 187-99-41 record, 2.41 GAA and .912 SV% in 365 career games with Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles and Carolina. He’ll “work with all the goaltenders in the Devils system and serve in a scouting capacity for draft-eligible prospects,” the Devils said.
  • Among the Devils’ more minor hires today is Geoff Sanderson, who joins as a pro scout. The 52-year-old played over 1,100 NHL games as part of a 17-year career that spanned seven franchises between 1990 and 2008, but his front office résumé is mostly empty aside from a two-year stint as a development coach with the Islanders in the early 2010s.
  • Lastly, there’s a Fitzgerald family reunion to cover. Ryan Fitzgerald, Tom’s 29-year-old son, is joining as a college scout. The news marks the end of his playing career. Fitzgerald was a fourth-round pick of the Bruins back in 2013 and signed with them coming out of Boston College four years later, but he was never able to crack the NHL roster. He played in parts of eight AHL seasons with Providence, Lehigh Valley and the Devils’ affiliate in Utica, where he had two points in 22 games last season. Injuries limited him to just 39 games combined over the past three seasons.

Kings Re-Sign Jordan Spence To Two-Year Deal

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1:00 p.m.: Spence’s new contract is official, per a team announcement. PuckPedia adds that his contract comes with a $300K signing bonus plus a $1MM base salary in 2024-25. He’ll earn a raise to a $1.7MM base salary in 2025-26, meaning that will be the worth of his qualifying offer upon expiry.

12:15 p.m.: The Kings are re-signing RFA defenseman Jordan Spence to a two-year deal worth $3MM, reports John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor.

Based on Hoven’s report, Spence’s deal will carry a $1.5MM cap hit this season and next. The Kings had $2.91MM in projected cap space for 2024-25 prior to the signing, per PuckPedia.

Spence, 23, became a full-time fixture on the Kings’ blue line this season after playing most of the prior two seasons with their AHL affiliate in Ontario. He did so in the third and final season of his entry-level contract, making him an RFA at season’s end. He wasn’t eligible to file for arbitration this summer.

The 2019 fourth-round pick has been a revelation offensively since turning pro. While undersized at 5’10” and 181 lbs, he’s one of the best puck-handling defenders in the organization and put up 87 points in 103 AHL games over the past few years, spectacular production for an early-20s talent. The right-shot defenseman smashed his previous career-high of 24 NHL appearances last season and suited up 71 times, finishing third among Kings blue-liners in scoring with 24 points (two goals, 22 assists). He did so in third-pairing minutes with only fringe power-play time, averaging 14:26 per game.

The Manly, Australia native will likely be relied upon for more minutes next season after Matt Roy departed for the Capitals in free agency. He, along with 2021 eighth-overall pick Brandt Clarke, will likely have a training camp battle for a spot on the team’s second pairing alongside Vladislav Gavrikov.

With Spence signed at $1.5MM per season, the Kings are cap-compliant with a full 23-player roster, PuckPedia shows. Their only remaining RFA is winger Arthur Kaliyev, but he’s not expected to sign a new contract with the club and still has an active trade request. L.A. will have $1.41MM in cap space on opening night if their roster shakes out as projected.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

New York Notes: Wahlstrom, Nelson, Trouba, Barbashev

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Breaking down a variety of Islanders topics in a mailbag published Thursday, Arthur Staple of The Athletic believes a waiver placement is the most likely option for winger Oliver Wahlstrom when training camps wrap up in a couple of months.

The Isles avoided an arbitration hearing with Wahlstrom last month, settling with the RFA on a one-year, $1MM contract. But it was clear at the time that the settlement didn’t necessarily mean he’d be back in an Islanders uniform next season.

Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello has been shopping the 2018 11th overall pick as far back as the June draft, but Staple believes offers for the winger have “been tepid at best.” He also says that Wahlstrom likely doesn’t have a path to regular bottom-six minutes under head coach Patrick Roy, but that he also “would need to have an incredible camp to secure a top-six spot.” His trade value will remain the same if he sticks in the press box, and the Isles don’t have the cap flexibility to routinely make a seven-figure cap hit player a healthy scratch. For that reason, if Wahlstrom finds his way out of Long Island in the coming weeks, it’ll likely be on the waiver wire.

Here’s more from the New York teams:

  • The Isles have a bevy of crucial pending free agents, namely second-line center Brock Nelson. Staple believes they’d consider shopping Nelson before the trade deadline “if they’re well out of [the playoff race],” but if they opt to work on an extension, it’ll likely result in a long-term deal to keep his cap hit down. The cap-strapped Isles also need to ink star blue liner Noah Dobson to a new deal next summer – he’s a pending RFA. Nelson turns 33 in October, so a seven or eight-year extension would take him into his 40s.
  • Last month, the dust largely settled on a hectic summer for Rangers captain Jacob Trouba with a report that he was likely to remain with the Blueshirts this season after a heavy dose of trade rumors. The 30-year-old, who has two years left on his contract with a hefty $8MM cap hit, told The Athletic’s Peter Baugh that he’s happy to remain with New York and excited for the upcoming campaign. “It’s part of the business,” Trouba said. “I knew that part of my contract turned this year (to a no-trade list), and I submitted a list. That’s what I did. All the other noise was pretty much noise.” The defender also dispelled any notion that there was a rift between he and Rangers GM Chris Drury, saying communication with the entire front office was “great the whole time” throughout the summer.
  • The Rangers no longer own the signing rights to 2022 fifth-round pick Maxim Barbashev, but he’s staying in the organization on a one-year contract with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, the team announced today. The 20-year-old winger is coming off a disappointing fourth junior campaign in which he was limited to 35 points in 59 games between the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats and Shawinigan Cataractes. His signing rights lapsed after he wasn’t signed to an entry-level contract by the Blueshirts before June 1, but he’ll now get a bit of runway with Hartford to prove he can adjust to the pro game.

Denis Gurianov Signs Two-Year Deal In Russia

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August 1: The KHL’s rush of transactions today continues. Gurianov’s two-year deal with CSKA was cemented today, per the league.

July 4: Not long ago, it looked as if Denis Gurianov was set to be a key secondary contributor for Dallas.  However, he has struggled considerably for the last couple of years and it appears he’s opting for a change of scenery as Alexander Balabanov of Sport-Express reports that the winger is expected to sign a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow of the KHL.  Back in April, it was reported that this was the likely outcome for the unrestricted free agent.

The 27-year-old was a first-round pick back in 2015 and while he didn’t become a consistent top-six option for the Stars, he put up a 20-goal season and averaged 30 points between 2019-20 and 2021-22, earning himself a couple of $2.9MM paydays in the process.  But he struggled in 2022-23, eventually being moved to Montreal who elected to non-tender him that summer.

Last year, Gurianov didn’t have a great market in free agency, waiting ten days before securing a one-year, $850K deal with Nashville.  Things didn’t go well there either as he cleared waivers at the end of training camp, playing in 27 games with AHL Milwaukee where he had 30 points.  That earned him a promotion in January but he played sparingly with Nashville for two months before being traded to Philadelphia where he played even less down the stretch.  All told, he finished up the campaign with just 18 NHL appearances where he had one goal and one assist.

With a market that doesn’t appear to be materializing for him in North America, it would make sense for him to return to Russia where he’d have a chance to play a prominent role much closer to home.  Assuming a deal is finalized, Gurianov will depart the NHL with 298 career appearances where he put up 52 goals and 61 assists.

Ruslan Iskhakov Signs Two-Year Deal With CSKA

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August 1: Iskhakov has signed a two-year deal with CSKA, the team announced on Telegram on Thursday. His NHL signing rights will still belong to the Islanders when his KHL contract expires in 2026.

July 6: After making his NHL debut late in the season and even getting into a playoff game, it seemed reasonable to think that winger Ruslan Iskhakov was in the Islanders’ plans for next season, at least as a player who could be called up early when injuries struck.  However, it doesn’t appear as if that will be an option as Championat’s Dmitry Storozhev relays that Iskhakov is one of six players expected to sign with CSKA Moscow of the KHL in the coming days.

The 23-year-old was a second-round pick (43rd overall) of the Isles back in 2018 despite being one of the smallest players in that draft class, coming in at just 5’7.  He spent two years at the University of Connecticut before turning pro, spending time in both Finland and Germany before coming back to North America for the 2022-23 campaign.

In his two seasons with AHL Bridgeport, Iskhakov was one of their most consistent scoring threats.  He finished third in rookie scoring in 2022-23 with 51 points in 69 games and nearly duplicated that last season, tallying 50 points in 69 games while adding an assist in his lone regular season appearance with New York.

That was enough for the Islanders to tender him a two-way qualifying offer last month worth a little under $814K at the NHL level.  However, it appears that Iskhakov will eschew that to return home where he hasn’t played since before being drafted.

Worth noting is that CSKA Moscow is under sanctions from the IIHF regarding their handling of Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov, including a two-year ban on transfers.  However, Storozhev notes that the State Duma adopted a bill that allows leagues to approve regulations regardless of international federations, effectively bypassing the IIHF sanctions which will allow Iskhakov and others to join CSKA in the near future once the bill is signed into law.

Sharks RFA Egor Afanasyev Signs Three-Year Deal With CSKA Moscow

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Sharks RFA left winger Egor Afanasyev is returning to his native Russia. He’s signed a three-year deal with CSKA Moscow, per a press release from the Kontinental Hockey League.

Afanasyev, 23, was drafted 45th overall by Nashville in 2019. He signed his entry-level contract later that summer, spending one season on loan to the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires and another on loan to CSKA before arriving in the Preds’ system in earnest in 2021. The 6’4″, 212-lb winger spent most of the last three seasons playing with AHL Milwaukee, only making 19 NHL appearances for Nashville in brief call-up duties in 2022-23 and 2023-24. He posted a lone goal and a -8 rating while averaging 11:04 per game.

The Preds parted ways with Afanasyev in June, trading the RFA’s signing rights to the Sharks in exchange for struggling 2020 first-rounder Ozzy Wiesblatt. San Jose issued Afanasyev a qualifying offer before the June 30 deadline, retaining his signing rights, but weren’t able to agree to a deal. Shortly after free agency opened, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now reported that Afanasyev was set to sign a two-year deal with CSKA. It ended up being a year longer than expected, but negotiations for Afanasyev to return home have evidently been ongoing for months.

Afanasyev has rarely played in Russia throughout his junior and professional career, however. He came to the United States in 2016, suiting up for a Detroit-based U16 team before beginning his major junior career in the United States Hockey League. His only notable experience in the Russian pyramid came on his one-year loan back to CSKA in the 2020-21 season, where he recorded six points (two goals, four assists) in 16 KHL games. He also appeared on brief loans to Zvezda Moscow in the VHL, Russia’s second-tier pro league, and Krasnaya Armiya Moscow in the MHL, Russia’s top junior league.

The three-year deal with CSKA isn’t quite long enough to walk Afanasyev to unrestricted free agency in the NHL’s eyes, though. He’ll be 26 years old upon expiry, so if he wants to return to the NHL in the summer of 2027 when his KHL deal runs out, the Sharks will still have his signing rights. Afanasyev won’t be a UFA until his 27th birthday, which is Jan. 23, 2028.

Alexander Barabanov Signs With KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan

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Alexander Barabanov, who’s spent the last four seasons in the NHL with the Maple Leafs and Sharks, has signed a two-year contract with Ak Bars Kazan in Russia, per a team release.

The 30-year-old winger arrived in the NHL as an undrafted free agent signing by Toronto in the 2020 offseason, but couldn’t break through amongst a deep Maple Leafs offense. The Russian had just one assist through 13 games in fourth-line minutes before the Leafs traded him to San Jose for minor-league forward Antti Suomela, giving Barabanov a better chance at frequent NHL minutes.

It was a prudent move from the Sharks. Barabanov quickly became a top-six option for a paper-thin San Jose forward group, averaging north of 15 minutes per game in each of his three full seasons in the Bay Area. In 2022-23, he was their best winger not named Timo Meier, finishing fifth on the team in scoring with 47 points (15 goals, 32 assists) in 68 games. A pending UFA, some thought San Jose would move on from Barabanov last summer, but he was still with the Sharks come opening night.

Unfortunately, 2023-24 proved to be somewhat of a nightmare for Barabanov. A finger injury cost him a good chunk of the first two months of the campaign, and a lower-body injury kept him out of action at the end of the season. Overall, he was limited to 46 contests, struggling with only four goals and nine assists for 13 points despite still seeing top-six minutes. He shot a career-low 6.0% and had a -24 rating, although he still managed to post strong possession numbers compared to his teammates.

But with the lack of production on the league’s worst team, it wasn’t surprising to see a report last month that Barabanov was receiving calls from Kontinental Hockey League teams to return home. He was previously a member of SKA St. Petersburg from 2013 to 2020, recording 137 points (62 goals, 75 assists) in 262 games in parts of seven seasons. SKA’s roster is full after making a notable signing of their own yesterday in Evgeny Kuznetsov, so he won’t be returning there. But the St. Petersburg native still finds a good landing spot with Ak Bars, which also added NHL veteran Nic Petan to its forward group last month.

Barabanov played 206 NHL games over his four-year stint in North America, scoring 32 goals and adding 75 assists for 107 points with a -58 rating.

Central Notes: Stars, Utah, Nabokov

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After losing to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals in last year’s playoffs, the Dallas Stars went through numerous changes this summer — especially on the blue line. However, general manager Jim Nill does not believe the team has taken a step backward as referenced in an interview with Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the NHL.

In the interview, Nill is quoted as saying, “I think our team might be a little bit better than we were last year at this time, and now let’s see. Let’s get the season started. Let’s see where we’re at“. The Stars will bring back one of the best offenses in the league next year even while losing veteran Joe Pavelski to retirement. The emergence of Mavrik Bourque and Logan Stankoven should give Dallas some continuity in their offense and create one of the deeper lineups in the league.

It’s difficult to imagine Nill believes the defense has gotten better than last season as the team effectively swapped Chris Tanev, Jani Hakanpaa, and Ryan Suter for Mathew Dumba, Brendan Smith, and Ilya Lyubushkin. The organization will have a little financial wiggle room after getting Thomas Harley locked into a new deal but it may not be enough to round out the top four. If the Stars cannot make it to the Stanley Cup Final again next season, it would not be surprising if defense is the culprit.

Other Central notes:

  • The Utah Hockey Club has shored up its ECHL affiliation as the organization announced a one-year agreement with the Allen Americans of Allen, TX. The short length of the affiliate agreement may indicate that Utah is hoping to eventually organize a deal with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL after their current deal with the Colorado Avalanche concludes. The Americans started play in the ECHL for the 2014-15 season and immediately won back-to-back Kelly Cup Finals. In the meantime, the Americans have qualified for the playoffs in every season but one.
  • According to Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now, Colorado Avalanche prospect Ilya Nabokov has had his contract restructured in the KHL. After paying him three million rubles for the 2023-24 KHL season, Metallurg Magnitogorsk is now set to pay 22 million rubles to the young netminder. Nabokov is the de facto starter for Metallurg after earning a 23-13-3 record in 43 games last year while holding a .930 save percentage. The new pay will not influence the length of the contract; however, as Nabokov is still expected to make it to North America next year.

Atlantic Notes: Canadiens, Clifford, Kulich

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The Montreal Canadiens are set to begin the 2024-25 NHL season with approximately $5.45MM in cap space. With no other restricted free agents left to sign, the organization may weaponize its cap space and effectively buy draft and prospect capital (Article Link).

The Canadiens hold a major trump card up their sleeve as the team could still place goaltender Carey Price on long-term injured reserve once this season begins which would open up another $10.5MM in cap space for next season. Montreal is no stranger to weaponizing their cap space as general manager Kent Hughes has swung trades in the past which netted them a first-round pick for taking on the contract of Sean Monahan and a second-round pick to take on 40% of Jeff Petry’s salary.

There are several teams close to the cap including the Washington Capitals, Vegas Golden Knights, Philadelphia Flyers, Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, and Nashville Predators. A few of these organizations will utilize LTIR in their own right once the season opens up to shed some salary but some could call the Canadiens in the upcoming weeks to gain some financial breathing room for next season.

Other Atlantic notes:

  • Veteran forward Kyle Clifford refuses to hang up his skates as Jacob Stoller of The Hockey News reports Clifford has re-upped with the Toronto Marlies on an AHL contract for the 2024-25 season. Clifford is a veteran of 753 games at the NHL level with the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Toronto Maple Leafs while helping the Kings win the Stanley Cup in 2014. For the better part of the last three seasons, Clifford has been riding out the twilight years of his career with the Marlies. In 108 games with the storied AHL franchise, Clifford has scored 21 goals and 51 points while collecting 224 PIMs.
  • The Buffalo Sabres offensive core has become a little too crowded for prospect Jiri Kulich. In an article today from Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News, the Sabres organization is waiting for Kulich to ’tear up the league’ before giving him a full-time shot at the NHL level. The young forward has been a solid scorer for the Rochester Americans over the last two years as he’s scored 51 goals in 119 games and another seven goals in 17 postseason contests. Buffalo is looking for Kulich to expand upon his 0.76 PPG thus far and raise his level to one of the better point producers at the AHL level.

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