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Sergei Plotnikov Re-Signs In KHL

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After terminating his contract with Metallurg Magnitogorsk yesterday, Sergei Plotnikov has found a new KHL home. The veteran forward has signed a one-year contract with CSKA Moscow for the 2021-22 season.

Plotnikov, 31, played one season in the NHL, splitting time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes in 2015-16. Despite strong offensive numbers overseas and internationally, he managed just three points (all assists) in his 45 NHL games.

Like his former teammate Sergei Mozyakin, who retired yesterday, this is a career spent almost entirely in Russia. Plotnikov has amassed 325 points in 568 career KHL games, which actually puts him 23rd all-time. He actually just had his best season with 43 points in 2020-21, which could have easily drawn some new NHL interest. For now, at least, that doesn’t matter, but it will be interesting to see if his name comes up again in a year’s time.

Steven Kampfer Signs With KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan

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Steven Kampfer’s NHL playing days may very well be over. The veteran defenseman has decided not to wait for the NHL market to open later this month, opting to make the move overseas. The KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan have announced a one-year contract with Kampfer, who will be playing outside of North America for the first time.  Kampfer, who is set to turn 33 in September, has served as a depth player for much of his career and may find it difficult to earn another NHL contract following this move.

Kampfer is best known for his two stints with the Boston Bruins, both to begin his NHL career and now likely to end it as well. The University of Michigan product played nine years in the league with four teams, but was never better than in his rookie season with Boston in 2010-11, when he recorded career highs in points and time on ice in 38 games. Kampfer was traded to the Minnesota Wild the following season, the first of five trades in his career that led to stints with the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers (twice) as well. The most recent trade came in 2018, when he returned to Boston from the Rangers as part of a package for former teammate Adam McQuaid. Kampfer played well in his depth role over the last three years, proving leadership in the AHL but performing when called upon in the NHL as well.

However, Kampfer’s departure from the Bruins is not at all unexpected. It was in the midst of Boston’s playoff run this season that it was first leaked that Kampfer was negotiating with Ak Bars and seemed likely to sign with the team. Ironically (or perhaps not so ironically), just a few days later the team announced that Kampfer would undergo season-ending hand surgery. With Kampfer missing his second consecutive postseason, when Boston has needed blue line depth both years, combined with his early planning to depart, it all but guaranteed that he would not return to the Bruins.

Joining Kazan, Kampfer will undoubtedly play in a greater role than he did with Boston and perhaps at any time in his NHL career. However, it is unknown if he will be able to top his expiring two-year, one-way 1.6MM contract. Nevertheless, he joins a talented roster that includes recent Bruins teammate Par Lindholm and other former NHLers and NHL prospects, while Montreal Canadiens forward Jordan Weal is also expected to officially sign once his season is over. Ak Bars has Gagarin Cup hopes this season and could look to Kampfer as their veteran leader to show them the way.

Sergei Mozyakin Announces Retirement

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One of the greatest players to never try his hand at the NHL is hanging up his skates. Sergei Mozyakin, among the most decorated Russian players of all time, has retired at the age of 40.

Name an award in the KHL, personal or team-based, and Mozyakin has likely won it. The legendary forward is the league’s all-time leader in goals, points and games played, has two Gagarin Cup championships, and has been named league MVP four times. He has Olympic gold, World Championship gold and several other medals on the international stage, sometimes serving as captain of the Russian team.

In fact, it is not quite accurate that he never tried to play in North America. Selected 58th overall in the 1998 CHL Import Draft, Mozyakin left his club team in Russia and was going to follow the same junior route many other talented international players did, playing in Canada. After just four games with the Val-d’Or Foreurs though, a contract dispute landed him back in Russia, never to leave again. He registered one assist for the Foreurs, his only point while playing for a North American club.

Somewhat hilariously, Mozyakin’s NHL draft rights were still owned by the Columbus Blue Jackets, who selected him 263rd overall in 2002. Because the KHL and NHL do not have a transfer agreement, those rights were carried indefinitely.

In 842 combined regular season and playoff games in the KHL, Mozyakin scored 419 goals and 928 points. He has served as captain for Metallurg Magnitogorsk for nearly a decade and had 21 points in 38 games this season. Even though his regular season totals were depressed, the old Mozyakin showed up one last time in the postseason, scoring 10 points in 11 games.

It’s not clear if Mozyakin ever would have found success in the NHL, but perhaps the decision to stay in Russia was the right one anyway. He will now go into retirement as one of the greatest to ever play in that league.

Oscar Dansk Signs in KHL

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The Vegas Golden Knights made it clear recently that Oscar Dansk wouldn’t be returning to the organization in 2021-22, but it wasn’t immediately apparent where he would be going. That question is now answered, with Dansk signing a two-year contract with Spartak Moscow of the KHL.

Now 27, Dansk was an unrestricted free agent, but still didn’t have much NHL experience to leverage in negotiations. Despite being selected 31st overall in 2012 by the Columbus Blue Jackets, he failed to ever play a game for them at the NHL level. After some middling minor league numbers and a two-year return to Sweden, he signed with the Golden Knights in 2017 as one of their first non-expansion additions. He would sign two more contracts with the Golden Knights over the last few seasons, but managed just six NHL appearances.

There is still enough upside left in Dansk that he could potentially return after showcasing his skills overseas, but this very well could be the end of his NHL career. In his six appearances, he went 4-1 with a .906 save percentage.

Mikhail Grigorenko Signs In The KHL

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Mikhail Grigorenko’s second act in North America wound up being even shorter than his first.  The 27-year-old has decided to take a pass at testing unrestricted free agency later this month and is instead heading back home as CSKA Moscow announced that they’ve signed Grigorenko to a three-year contract.

Grigorenko spent the three seasons before 2020-21 with CSKA before deciding to give the NHL another try after he struggled considerably with Buffalo and Colorado in his first opportunity.  That brought him to Columbus, a team that had some vacancies down the middle to fill; there was definitely a fit on paper.

That fit didn’t translate to on-ice success, however.  He tallied just four goals and eight assists in 32 games with the Blue Jackets this season while clearing waivers back in mid-March.  In the end, he wound up being just a role player and accordingly, it seemed unlikely that he’d be able to come close to the $1.2MM he made this season.  Had he stuck around, he’d have been looking at something closer to the minimum.

With that in mind, a trip back to CSKA where he has had some success certainly makes sense.  But while he’ll only be 30 when this contract is up, it’s quite unlikely that Grigorenko will attempt a third tour of duty in the NHL.  Assuming this is indeed the end of his playing days in North America, he leaves with 26 goals and 50 assists in 249 games over parts of six seasons.  That’s not the type of return Buffalo was expecting when they made Grigorenko the 12th-overall pick in 2012.

Snapshots: Coyotes’ Coach Search, Nylander, Ak Bars

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With head coaches flying off the market and one of the top available names being the guy they just let go, the Arizona Coyotes’ hunt for a head coach is in an interesting spot. From the get-go, the word was that the ’Yotes and GM Bill Armstrong could be looking for a fresh voice, perhaps even a first-time NHL coach, so they may be unfazed by the recent run on big names. Yet, insider Craig Morgan reports that one of their top candidates is in fact a seasoned veteran. Morgan writes that Dallas Stars assistant Todd Nelson is scheduled to have his third interview for the vacancy, by all accounts the most of any candidate. Nelson has been in the NHL (or AHL) since 2006, including a brief stint as the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. He has found great success in the minors, winning two Calder Cups, and never really got a fair shake as the bench boss in Edmonton, so in a way he would be somewhat of a first-time NHL head coach. He has picked up experience in Dallas over the past three years under Jim Montgomery and Rick Bowness and could be ready for another shot at the top job.

Morgan considers Nelson’s greatest competition to be Andre Tourigny, the head coach of the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s and most recently an assistant for Canada’s gold medal World Championship entry. Tourigny briefly coached in the NHL as an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche and Ottawa Senators over three years, but has mostly coached at the major junior level and has been the bench boss of Canada’s World Junior team the past two years. Tourigny has found immense success working with young players; he has been named OHL Coach of the Year (twice), QMJHL Coach of the Year, and the overall CHL Coach of the Year, not to mention medals at four World Juniors. Can he translate that ability to the pros and lead a Coyotes team that needs to take a step forward rather than continuing to tread water? That is the question that Armstrong must answer. According to Morgan, he has already decided that St. Louis Blues assistant Mike Van Ryn and AHL Providence head coach Jay Leach are not the men for the job.

  • The Chicago Blackhawks just gained some Expansion Draft flexibility. The Athletic’s Scott Powers reports that Alexander Nylander has been declared exempt from the impending selection process. In order to be eligible for the draft, a player must have three pro service years. Nylander, who has been playing professionally in North America for five seasons, may seem like an impossibility to avoid that label, but somehow he does. Despite playing in 116 AHL games between 2016-17 and 2017-18, he played in only seven combined NHL games and his rookie contract underwent the entry-level slide each season, meaning service time did not accrue. He then played countable NHL season in each of the past two years. However, this season – in what was meant to be his third year of service – Nylander missed the entire campaign due to injury. This means that, again, his service time will not clock. After five years in and out of the NHL, Nylander will be considered a second-year pro and untouchable for the Seattle Kraken. As Powers notes, Nylander was expected to be protected by the Blackhawks next month. Now off the board, it will allow the team to protected another forward that they may not have expected. He suggests deadline addition Adam Gaudette or reliable fourth-liner David Kampf could be the pick, while young, high-upside assets Brandon Hagel and Henrik Borgstrom should now be locks.
  • The KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan has succeeded in keeping a pair of drafted prospects away from their NHL teams for a while longer. The team announced that they have re-signed Columbus’ Dmitri Voronkov and Anaheim’s Artyom Galimov to multi-year extensions. At their age, this is not an NHL career death sentence for either player, but it is likely disheartening to their teams who would like to get them on North American ice as soon as possible. 20-year-old Voronkov, a 2019 fourth-round pick of the Blue Jackets, has signed a two-year deal with Ak Bars after setting career highs across the board in the KHL this season. The impressive youngster has already played two full seasons in the KHL and has been dominant for Russia on the World Junior stage as well. Voronkov’s name carries weight as a prospect and the Jackets undoubtedly hope that he will follow WJC teammate Yegor Chinakhov to Columbus as soon as his new contract expires. There is a bit more cause for pause when it comes to Galimov. The 21-year-old was an overage pick by the Ducks just last year and despite his age has signed a three-year extension with Ak Bars. Galimov is a grassroots product of Kazan and has loyalty to the club, as they do to him after two successful seasons to begin his KHL career. Galimov has actually outpaced Voronkov to this point, showing that he too is a serious NHL prospect. However, Galimov will be 25 years old before he could ever step onto Anaheim ice and will have that much more attachment to Ak Bars. His ability should keep him interested in the NHL and the Ducks in him, but it is not a guarantee.

Konstantin Okulov Re-Signs In KHL

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It’s the same old song and dance for Konstantin Okulov, who has once again signed in the KHL instead of coming to North America. The free agent forward has signed a one-year deal with CSKA Moscow according to Eric Engels of Sportsnet. The contract also includes another option year for 2022-23.

Okulov, 26, has been pursued by NHL organizations for several years, most notably the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. Just last month Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote that teams were once again showing interest in him, but that will have to wait at least another year. You can understand why the NHL is coming to call, after another outstanding season in the KHL. Okulov scored 18 goals and 49 points for CSKA, adding another 20 in the playoffs to lead the entire league.

In the absence of Kirill Kaprizov from the Moscow roster this season, Okulov stepped into even more spotlight and led the charge offensively. His 49 points were 14 more than the next highest scorer on the team and he was a force in the postseason. The fact that he only turned 26 a few months ago is important in this case, as Okulov would still be limited to the entry-level contract system in the NHL. For now, teams will have to wait and hope he makes a different decision in the coming years.

Minor Transactions: 06/20/21

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While the NHL rumor mill has certainly been heating up of late, it may still be some time before major moves start to drop and calendar draws closer to the Expansion Draft, Entry Draft, and opening of free agency. In the meantime, there has still been a fairly consistent flow of minor moves out of the minor leagues and European ranks as the off-season has started early for some familiar names. Keep up with all of those transactions right here:

  • A 2021 NHL Draft prospect has cemented his development path. Finnish defenseman Jimi Suomi, who many rankings believe could go as early as the third round next month, will likely be considered a project player anyway. That project will be monitored from afar, as Suomi has decided to stay in Finland. Liiga club TPS has announced a three-year contract with the young blue liner, who spent this past season with the U-20 team for Jokerit. The move is significant, as Suomi had been drafted into the USHL and was on NCAA radars. Instead, he will go the pro route and try to crack TPS’ Liiga roster next season.
  • Another name staying in Europe, perhaps also to the surprise of some, is veteran forward Nick Shore. Shore, 28, has signed a one-year deal with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk, the team announced. The younger brother of Carolina Hurricanes forward Drew Shore and older brother of Harvard forward Baker Shore, Nick is a veteran of nearly 300 NHL games. However, he played this past season in Europe, starting the year in Slovakia and then jumping to Switzerland when the NLA re-opened. He recorded 37 points in 27 games across the two leagues, one of the better offensive seasons of his pro career. It is unclear if Shore spent the year in Europe due to financial and convenience concerns due to the COVID pandemic or if there was simply no NHL interest. He has played in 63 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets the season prior, so it at least seemed as if he was still valued in North America. However, his early decision to sign in the KHL rather than test the NHL market could be indicative to the contrary.
  • T.J. Brennan is another NHL veteran staying overseas. The journeyman defenseman left for Switzerland this season after four consecutive seasons in the AHL without any NHL action. He found success with HC Thurgau, recording 24 points in 22 games and leading the team to the playoffs. He will try again next season in Austria, signing a one-year contract with EC Salzburg of the IceHL. The team’s release notes his previous scoring success in the AHL and touts him as a major addition to the roster.
  • Texas Stars free agent Derek Barach is leaving the AHL for Europe. The 26-year-old forward has signed with Liiga club Assat on a two-year deal. A productive college player at Mercyhurst, Barach is still trying to find his footing in the pros after stops with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters and the Stats this past season.

Latest On Kirill Kaprizov’s Contract Talks

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There’s a long list of things to do this offseason for Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin, but more important than anything is getting Kirill Kaprizov signed. The odds-on favorite for the Calder Trophy had an outstanding first season in the NHL, breathing life back into a franchise that was desperate for excitement. Because he took so long to come to North America after being drafted in 2015 and burned the first year of his entry-level contract in 2019-20 without actually playing, the 24-year-old forward is a restricted free agent this summer.

It has already been reported that the Wild have offered Kaprizov an eight-year contract, trying to lock him up for as long as possible right now. Michael Russo of The Athletic wrote a week ago that he didn’t think that would actually be signed, given the hesitation from the player to commit that much of his playing career to the organization. Russo explained that Kaprizov’s camp wants a “clear plan to upgrade the middle of the ice” in Minnesota and noted that it is a “big risk” if the team doesn’t significantly upgrade at the center position.

Now, Kevin Weekes of the NHL Network tweets that talks between the two sides have cooled. In fact, according to Weekes Kaprizov is currently in Moscow and that CSKA of the KHL is still trying to sign him. Of course, just traveling back to Russia doesn’t necessarily mean anything in regards to contract negotiations (in fact, Russo tweets that Kaprizov is there to attend a friend’s wedding and his agent informed the Wild of it ahead of time).

One thing to keep in mind with Kaprizov though is that now that he has played in North America, the Wild do not indefinitely hold his rights. When they selected him in 2015, they could wait as long as it took for him to try his hand at the NHL. The lack of a transfer agreement between the NHL and KHL meant that Kaprizov’s draft rights would never expire; if he wanted to play in the NHL, it had to be with Minnesota unless they traded him. But now that he has played out his entry-level contract and reached restricted free agency, that’s no longer the case. He would become an unrestricted free agent in three years when he turns 27, whether he plays in North America or not.

That makes this summer an absolutely crucial time for the Wild if they want to retain the services of the dynamic forward. Kaprizov scored 51 points in 55 games this season, 11 more than the team’s second-place scorer Kevin Fiala. Joel Eriksson Ek was the team’s highest-scoring center with just 30 points, though 19 of those were goals. The team does have an elite center prospect in Marco Rossi coming up the pipe, but after he missed the entire season with COVID-19 health complications, there’s no telling exactly how long it will take for him to break into the NHL. Matthew Boldy is also in the system but failed to make an NHL appearance after signing his entry-level deal in April.

There’s absolutely nothing more important for Guerin this offseason than keeping Kaprizov in the organization, and Wild fans shouldn’t panic just yet. The threat of a return to the KHL has been used many times in the past during contract negotiations but is rarely actually followed through on. It’s not clear which side this specific case will come down on, but it’s certainly a situation to keep an eye on this offseason.

Sharks Forward Fredrik Handemark Signs In The KHL

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It will be a one and done term in North America for Sharks winger Fredrik Handemark.  The pending unrestricted free agent has decided to not try his hand in NHL free agency and will head back overseas.  He won’t be returning to the SHL, however, as SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL announced that they’ve signed Handemark to a two-year deal.

The 27-year-old joined San Jose a little over a year ago, inking a one-year, entry-level contract in May 2020.  It took a while for him to get his first taste of North American hockey though due to the delayed start to the pandemic.  Handemark made the most of that time, returning to Malmo on loan and recorded 15 points in 25 games before being recalled.

Handemark made frequent appearances in our Taxi Squad Shuffle posts this season as he was involved in 25 separate transactions over the span of four months.  Despite that, he still got into 14 AHL games where he had four goals and four assists plus eight NHL contests with the Sharks where he collected a goal while averaging 9:27 per night of ice time.

That’s not the type of production that would allow him to command a one-way deal on the open market so instead of seeking out a two-way pact, Handemark will now join one of the top KHL franchises.  If he plays a big role there, perhaps he will be able to get another NHL opportunity when his deal is up in 2023.

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