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Mikhail Berdin

Mikhail Berdin To Spend 2022-23 In KHL

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It was interesting, earlier this week, when the Winnipeg Jets recalled Arvid Holm from the minor leagues to serve as an extra goaltender. That third-string spot would have presumably gone to Mikhail Berdin under normal circumstances but he was away from the team.

Now, the Jets have explained where Berdin is. In a release, the team has indicated that per a recommendation from the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program, the young goaltender will not be with the organization this season. His agent Dan Milstein tweets that Berdin will return to Russia to be closer to his family and will play in the KHL this season.

The Jets will not incur a cap charge and Berdin will not be paid by the team. Instead, he will be allowed to sign a one-year deal in the KHL for this season. His NHL rights will stay with Winnipeg for the time being.

Now 24, Berdin was a sixth-round pick of the Jets back in 2016 and has been away from Russia for years. He spent two full seasons in the USHL following his draft, and has been in the minor league system for the past four. There was a short 14-game stint with St. Petersburg SKA in 2020-21 when the AHL season was postponed, but beyond that, he has been competing in North America for six years.

Hopefully, whatever has caused him to need this split from the organization will be resolved and he can continue his pro career here in the future. The young netminder has a lot of upside and posted a .902 save percentage in 32 games with the Manitoba Moose last season.

Interestingly, because of his age and contract status, Berdin should actually qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency next summer. That means the two sides could be parting ways permanently, though since this is a special circumstance there could be other factors at play. Even if he does qualify for UFA status, the Jets would be free to sign him to another contract next offseason.

Minor Transactions: 05/08/22

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Half of the NHL is in the playoffs and focused on little else. The other half of the league has turned their attention to the offseason, but are limited in what they can actually do before the NHL Draft and free agency. However, for nearly every other league in the world, it is a busy time. The KHL, Liiga, and Swiss National League have all wrapped up their seasons and started offseason activities, and the SHL is at most two games from joining them. Closer to home, as CHL seasons come to an end in the playoffs, AHL rosters are being supplemented by assignments and amateur tryouts. NCAA programs are also finalizing their rosters for next season, some in response to pro signings. So while transactions may seem like a non-issue in the NHL right now, there is plenty going on elsewhere:

  • Cole Spicer, a member of the USNTDP and the silver medal-winning U.S. entry into the U-18 World Juniors, has finally landed on a new destination for his collegiate career. Spicer had recently decommitted from the University of North Dakota and Matt Wellens of the The Rink Live reports that he will instead play for a NCHC rival. Spicer has committed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth and will join the Bulldogs next season. Spicer will now play alongside USNTDP teammate and presumptive 2022 first-round pick Isaac Howard at UMD, whereas no one from the program’s graduating class is headed to North Dakota now. Though Spicer is a step behind compared to an extraordinarily talented USNTDTP group this year, expected to go in the fourth round or later rather than the first two rounds, he was still a key contributor to the team and a prospect to watch moving forward.
  • Niko Huuhtanen, a seventh-round selection of the Tampa Bay Lightning last year, is getting his first taste of the pro level to end the year. The Bolts’ AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, have announced that Huuhtanen has signed an ATO with the team for the remainder of the season. The Finnish product is having quite the first season in North America; after recording 37 goals and 77 points in 65 games with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, Huuhtanen is now getting a shot in the AHL less than a year after he nearly went undrafted, taken with the very last pick of the 2021 Draft. The power forward could be yet another late-round find by Tampa. The Crunch have also added undrafted defenseman Tyson Feist on an ATO. The 21-year-old captain of the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets just wrapped up his junior career by scoring more points (39) in 65 games this season than he did in his first four WHL seasons combined. The Lightning want to see if he has what it takes to continue on to the pro level.
  • When Helsinki-based club Jokerit backed out of the KHL playoffs and later announced they would be leaving the league altogether, the expectation was that they would be returning to the Finnish Liiga next season. However, no such official decision has been made and with the Liiga now in offseason mode, a pair of notable Jokerit forwards have decided to move elsewhere. SC Rapperswil-Jona has announced that both Nicklas Jensen and Jordan Schroeder have signed two-year deals with the team. Playing on a Jokerit roster filled with former and future NHLers, Jensen and Schroeder ranked first and third respectively in goals and second and third respectively in points. The former Jokers are expected to fill those same top-line roles with the Lakers for the next two years and should be even more productive in the Liiga. Both first-round picks of yesteryear, Jensen and Schroeder combine for less than 200 NHL games between them, but have found their place as top scorers in Europe.
  • Usually when the KHL rights of active NHL players are traded, there is information informing the value of those rights. With that in mind, pay attention to Russian netminder Alexei Melnichuk this offseason. HC Sochi and SKA St. Petersburg have made a deal in which the rights to forward Ivan Morozov and goaltender Mikhail Berdin were sent to SKA, while Melnichuk’s rights are headed to Sochi, the club announced. Seeing as Morozov just signed with the Vegas Golden Knights two weeks ago and Berdin is signed through next season with the Winnipeg Jets and to a one-way deal no less, the only player whose rights could reasonably have value in 2022-23 is Melnichuk. An impending restricted free agent, the 23-year-old Melnichuk is not having the season he expected after making his NHL debut with the San Jose Sharks last year. Rather than gain more of a role in the Sharks’ organization, Melnichuk played exclusively in the AHL this year before he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the deadline, who have kept him in the ECHL ever since. Melnichuk put up stellar numbers in the KHL at a young age before jumping to North America and there could be a strong draw to return given his recent usage and results. On the other side, though Berdin has long been committed to playing in North America and Morozov is an up-and-coming prospect who hopes to have a long NHL career, St. Petersburg certainly added the vastly superior talent in the deal and will be happy to cash in if either player ever return to Russia.

Jets Announce Several Roster Moves

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Prior to their game tonight against Florida, the Jets announced (Twitter link) quite a few roster moves.  Defensemen Dylan DeMelo and Logan Stanley were both placed on injured reserve while fellow blueliner Josh Morrissey entered COVID protocol.  That resulted in the recalls of rearguards Ville Heinola and Johnny Kovacevic from the taxi squad as well as forward Kristian Reichel.  In order to get cap-compliant to make those moves, goaltender Mikhail Berdin was sent back to the taxi squad while center David Gustafsson was transferred to LTIR.

DeMelo suffered an upper-body injury back on Saturday against Boston and has been listed as day-to-day since then; if the IR placement was backdated, he will be eligible to return as soon as this weekend.  As for Stanley, he was injured back on Thursday with interim head coach Dave Lowry telling reporters, including Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe (Twitter link) that Stanley’s designation is longer than day-to-day.  At this point, the fact that they didn’t see fit to place him on LTIR should at least be considered as some cause for optimism as that would have forced him to miss 10 games and 24 days.  That’s what will happen for Gustafsson although he last played nearly three weeks ago and assuming his placement was backdated, he could be back as soon as next week.

The loss of Morrissey will certainly be a big loss for the Jets in the short term as he logs just shy of 23 minutes a game on the back end, the most of anyone on the team.  He’ll be out for at least five days as a result of this placement as long as it’s for a confirmed positive test.

As for the recalls, Heinola is the most experienced with 13 career games under his belt although none of them have come this season as Winnipeg has opted to have the 2019 first-rounder develop with a consistent role in the AHL where he has chipped in with 16 points in 24 games.  Reichel made his NHL debut last month and has played in five games overall this season, picking up his first career NHL goal in the process.  Meanwhile, Kovacevic is in his fourth season in Winnipeg’s system and this is his first career recall to the big club.  He has 14 points in 32 games with AHL Manitoba so far in 2021-22.

Mikhail Berdin Signs Extension With Winnipeg Jets

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In one of the more interesting moves of the offseason, goaltending prospect Mikhail Berdin has signed a two-year extension with the Winnipeg Jets. Berdin is entering the final year of his entry-level contract and hasn’t even played an NHL game yet, suiting up exclusively in the AHL or, for the first part of this season, in the KHL. The 22-year-old goaltender will now be under contract through the 2022-23 season. The deal carries an average annual value of $750K in the NHL and is two-way in 2021-22 and one-way in 2022-23.

Of note, Berdin is eligible for selection in the upcoming Seattle Kraken expansion draft and will now fill the Jets exposure requirements. Connor Hellebuyck is the obvious choice for the Jets to protect, which would leave the promising young prospect up for grabs.

Make no mistake, he is promising. Berdin was a sixth-round pick of the Jets in 2016 after playing rather sparingly in the Russian junior league, but immediately made an impact after coming to North America. He joined the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL where he posted a .925 save percentage in 31 appearances. He followed it up with another excellent campaign for Sioux Falls and was the third goaltender for Russia at the World Junior Championship (though he did not play).

Two years of professional hockey in the Winnipeg minor league system followed and Berdin has been successful, posting strong save percentages at every stop. He had a .912 in 14 games with SKA St. Petersburg this year in the KHL, but is expected to return for NHL training camp.

A move like this is interesting mostly because it locks Berdin into a deal long before he really had to. He has no NHL stats to rely on in negotiations but obviously wanted to be a part of the Jets organization and stay on this side of the pond. He could be a potential Seattle target, though there will be lots of young goaltenders available and perhaps more pressing needs.

Mikhail Berdin To Sign With SKA St. Petersburg

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Sep 22: The Jets have officially announced that Berdin will play for SKA, but confirmed that he will return to North America when the 2020-21 season begins.

Sep 15: With the start of the AHL season still completely up in the air many teams have loaned out prospects around the world to keep them playing and developing. Most of those loans have a clock on them though as the prospects are expected back in North America to compete for jobs whenever training camp finally happens.

That might not be the case with Winnipeg Jets goaltending prospect Mikhail Berdin, whose KHL rights were traded today from Sochi to SKA St. Petersburg. The latter team announced that Berdin will soon sign a contract for the entire 2020-21 season, which would suggest that he isn’t returning to North America anytime soon.

While that may be a fine development for some who want playing time and consistency this season, but in Berdin’s case it brings up another issue. The 22-year-old goaltender is heading into his final season under contract with the Jets, meaning as a restricted free agent next offseason he could potentially remain in the KHL.

Though the Jets have their starting NHL goaltender locked up for the next several seasons, Berdin represents a potential future option should his strong play continue. The sixth-round pick put up a .910 save percentage in 42 games for the Manitoba Moose this season after an excellent rookie year in 2018-19. If he decided to stay in Russia past the upcoming season the Jets could still retain his NHL rights by issuing him a qualifying offer, but it’s hard to think they wouldn’t rather have him playing for their organization instead.

International Notes: Erat, KHL Rights Swap, Berglund, DEL

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Veteran winger Martin Erat has spent the past five seasons playing overseas after a 13-year NHL stint but he told Zdenek Janda of iSport that he has decided to call it a career.  Injuries limited the 38-year-old to just 16 games with HC Kometa Brno this season but he had been close to a point per game player in the previous three years in the Czech Extraliga.

Erat’s NHL time ended on a relatively quiet note (aside from being part of a trade that Washington would like to forget) but in his prime, he was a reliable and consistent top-six winger, collecting at least 49 points in a stretch of eight consecutive seasons, all with Nashville.  Overall, his career winds up with a total of 163 goals and 318 assists in 723 games between the Predators, Capitals, and Coyotes.

Elsewhere around the international hockey world:

  • A pair of NHL prospect goaltenders have seen their rights traded in the KHL. HK Sochi announced that they’ve acquired the rights to Jets youngster Mikhail Berdin from CSKA Moscow in exchange for Coyotes prospect Ivan Prosvetov.  Both netminders are already under contract to their respective NHL teams for next season but with the start of the 2020-21 AHL campaign certainly in question as long as there are restrictions in terms of allowable attendance, it’s a real possibility that players that are a little lower down the depth chart (Berdin and Prosetov played exclusively in the minors this year) are loaned to the KHL to ensure a full season of development.
  • Although he signed his entry-level contract back on Monday, don’t expect Bruins prospect Victor Berglund to play in North America next season. Reporter Mark Divver notes (Twitter link) that Berglund is expected to fulfill his previous commitment to play in Lulea of the SHL for the 2020-21 campaign and then come to North America after.  It will be his first taste of action at the top level in Sweden after previously playing in their second-tier Allsvenskan.
  • Earlier this week, Germany extended its ban on public events through the end of October due to the ongoing pandemic. Accordingly, as Szymon Szemberg of the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs notes (Twitter link), that places the start of the DEL in jeopardy and will also have an impact on other international events such as the Champions Hockey League which is set to begin its 2020-21 schedule in early October.  A handful of NHL free agents (often those who have been in the minors for most of the year) sign in the DEL each year but that now may be one opportunity that they opt not to pursue this offseason.

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