The Vegas Golden Knights signed their second player in franchise history last night, inking Russian playmaker Vadim Shipachyov to a two-year, $9MM deal. It had been rumored for months that Shipachyov wanted to come to North America, but his old KHL squad did everything they could to keep him around. Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports that SKA St. Petersburg offered a four-year, $20MM deal to try and tempt him to stay in Russia. Apparently that wasn’t enough, as he decided to come to the NHL for less than half, albeit with a chance to hit the open market again at 32.
Engels also reports that though both sides have long said they weren’t interested in each other, the Shipachyov camp were in contract with the Montreal Canadiens as recently as ten days ago. Apparently Montreal didn’t want to offer more than the $9MM deal he ended up signing, or perhaps there were other reasons for heading to Vegas. Shipachyov will likely be their best player among a forward group that will include a lot of youth and a lot of declining talent. He’ll certainly get his chance to shine, centering one of the top two lines and likely playing on the power play.
St. Petersburg could be watching several players leave this summer, as Ilya Kovalchuk and Evgeni Dadonov are both rumored to also be heading back to the NHL. The team has just acquired the rights to Nail Yakupov though, and Shipachyov’s decision to sign in the NHL may put even more pressure on the squad to try and convince the former first-overall pick to return to Russia.