Over the past few days, we’ve seen a couple of KHL prospects sign with their respective NHL clubs with more potentially still to come. It appears that the Oilers are hoping they’ll be able to join in as GM Stan Bowman indicated on an appearance on Oilers Now (audio link) that they’re hoping to sign winger Maxim Berezkin once his club team finishes up in the playoffs.
The 23-year-old was a fifth-round pick by Edmonton back in 2020, going 138th overall. At the time, Berezkin had just finished up a solid junior season in Russia in Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s system while also making his KHL debut.
Berezkin would bounce back and forth between the KHL and either the junior level or minor-league level for the next three seasons before finally becoming a full-time KHL piece last season. That year, he notched eight goals and 22 assists in 62 games during the regular season before breaking out in the playoffs with 16 points in 20 appearances.
That set the expectations a little higher for Berezkin heading into this season and he delivered, tallying 15 goals and 27 assists in 62 games this season, good for second on the team in scoring. He’s off to a solid start in the playoffs as well, collecting four points in five games so far to tie for the scoring lead. With Lokomotiv the top seed in their conference, Bowman and the Oilers may have to wait a little longer before they can really kickstart negotiations about an entry-level contract for Berezkin.