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Sergei Shumakov

Sergei Shumakov Signs With KHL’s Avangard Omsk

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Sergei Shumakov was applauded for sticking with North American hockey when his contract with the Washington Capitals was terminated earlier this month. It turns out he wasn’t that committed to staying on the continent. Just eleven days after signing with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, Shumakov has jumped ship in favor of a return to the KHL. Avangard Omsk have announced that they have signed Shumakov to a three-year contract.

Shumakov, 26, made headlines when he signed with the Capitals this off-season. The talented forward had been playing for Sibir Novosibirsk of the KHL since he was a teenager, before moving to CSKA Moscow last year. Shumakov helped CSKA to a finals appearance behind a 40-point effort and +28 rating in 47 regular season games and another four points in eleven postseason games. Many felt that would be a good fit in Washington, a team that has had great success with Russian players. However, Shumakov was unable to earn a spot on the Capitals roster in training camp and was relegated to beginning his North American career with the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Shumakov recorded four points in ten games with the Bears before requesting his release from Washington. Shumakov then joined the Thunderbirds, perhaps hoping he might earn another shot at the NHL with their parent club, the Florida Panthers, or another team, and added one point in three games.

However, when Avangard came calling with a lucrative, long-term contract, Shumakov likely couldn’t resist a return to the league that he so recently excelled in. Omsk is currently a top five team in the KHL and leading the Chernyshev Division. They add Shumakov to a roster that already boasts a number of NHL alumni, including veteran defensemen Cody Franson, Alexei Emelin, and Evgeny Medvedev and experienced scorers Sergei Shirokov, David Desharnais, Maxime Talbot, and Viktor Stalberg. Shumakov should fit right in with this group and make Omsk and even more dangerous team this season and beyond in the KHL.

Sergei Shumakov Clears Unconditional Waivers, Signs A Minor League Deal With Florida

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Saturday: In a somewhat surprising move, Shumakov has inked a tryout deal with Springfield of the AHL, Florida’s minor league affiliate, reports Igor Eronko of Sport-Express.  That suggests he hasn’t given up on playing in the NHL just yet and will now try his luck in the Panthers organization.

Friday: Shumakov has cleared waivers and will see his contract terminated.

Thursday: The season of contract terminations continues, this time with the placement of Sergei Shumakov on unconditional waivers according to Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post and Chris Kuc of The Athletic. The Washington Capitals only signed the Russian forward in September, but obviously things have not worked out as planned between the two sides. Shumakov will likely be headed back to the KHL provided his termination goes smoothly.

Shumakov, 26, signed a one-year entry-level contract this offseason to try his hand at the NHL, but couldn’t crack the Capitals roster out of camp. After a career-high 40 points in the KHL last year, even his play at the AHL level wasn’t exceptional with just four points in ten games. Those ten sound like the only games he’ll play in North America, though after terminating his deal he could technically sign elsewhere around the NHL.

On the one-year deal, if Shumakov expressed a desire to return to Russia there was little reason for the Capitals to keep him around. Unless they had plans on recalling him soon, there’s little chance he would have agreed to a new contract in the summer, despite being a restricted free agent. Washington will give up those rights by terminating the deal.

It will be interesting to see if Shumakov returns to CSKA, where he played last season for the first time. There is always a chance that we see him back in North America down the line, but he’s no longer an asset of the Washington organization.

Washington Capitals Returning Nearly Identical Roster

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The biggest news out of Washington Capitals’ training camp is that there isn’t any news. As the defending Stanley Cup champs face the Boston Bruins in the second meeting of the two teams already this preseason, there simply isn’t much to watch for in terms of camp battles and roster spots. GM Brian MacLellan and the Caps front office succeeded in keeping their championship roster together as well as any Cup winner in recent memory and are prepared to go for another title in 2018-19.

Of the 25 players who took the ice in the postseason for the Capitals, 21 return this season. The glaring absence is obviously backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who was traded away to the Colorado Avalanche early this off-season. Another name who Washington fans were upset to see go was career Capital Jay Beagle, who signed with the Vancouver Canucks after ten seasons in D.C. Outside of that duo, the other two players who saw playoff action for the Cup winners were defenseman Jakub Jerabek, who played in two postseason games, and forward Alex Chiasson, who saw less than nine minutes of ice time in the playoffs. The team also lost regular season contributors Taylor Chorney, Tyler Graovac, and Anthony Peluso. 

When any team can return 21 players to a roster limited to just 23, the result of few departures is few opportunities in camp. Rather than sign or acquire a backup of similar pedigree to Grubauer to backup starter Braden Holtby, the team seems content to let veteran minor leaguer Pheonix Copley try his hand at the job. With only youngsters Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek, neither of whom have made an NHL appearance, also under contract, there really is not much of a competition to replace Grubauer. On the blue line, the top-four will line up exactly as they did in the postseason and Christian Djoos will pair with either his postseason partner, veteran Brooks Orpik – who was traded away and then re-signed this summer, or his frequent regular season partner, Madison Bowey. Orpik versus Bowey is one situation that could potentially be defined as a camp battle, although both are guaranteed roster spots. Up front, the top-nine is also locked in as the same group who dominated in the playoffs, leaving only fourth line and an extra skater spot or two up for grabs. The team has shown a commitment to Devante Smith-Pelly and Chandler Stephenson and the pair are almost certainly the energy liners on opening night. The one true position battle is at the final spot, where Travis Boyd and free agent addition Nic Dowd will fight it out to skate on that fourth line. The loser is likely to begin the season as an extra skater beside import winger Sergei Shumakov.

If you’ve been keeping count, that’s the entire roster: almost all familiar names and only one or two spots up for grabs. There won’t be many questions in need of answering out of Capitals camp, but the big question remaining is whether failing to insert some fresh legs or properly replacing Grubauer will come back to bite Washington in their attempt to repeat.

Metropolitan Notes: Kuznetsov, Shumakov, Domoulin, Sullivan, Stolarz

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The Washington Capitals can’t be happier with one of their top players in Evgeny Kuznetsov, who took that next step last year when the won the Stanley Cup, putting up career highs in goals scored and points with 27 goals and 83 points. However, general manager Brian MacLellan feels that he can do even more this year — help out on the penalty kill, according to the Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan.

That’s not a role that Kuznetsov has played much of over the course of his career. The 26-year-old has played a grand total of just 11 minutes over the last four years, which averages out to two seconds per game. However, while new head coach Todd Reirden probably won’t make too many changes to the team’s lineup after last year’s success, he has made it clear that he wants to make changes to their penalty kill, which was 15th in the league last year at 80.8 percent. One way to do that would be to inject more speed into it. That’s where Kuznetsov comes in, who could add a new element to their shorthanded line and perhaps improve his own defensive play at the same time.

“It’s a situation where we are going to try any option we can,” Reirden said. “We want to get better in that area, we need to get better in that area, and we’re going to be more aggressive, and if we’re going to be more aggressive then we have to have guys that can skate and think the game at a high level. He’s certainly one of many options we’re considering right now and he certainly seems to be up to the challenge.”

  • The Capitals are without recent signee Sergei Shumakov so far in training camp, according to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti. The 26-year-old winger who has spent his entire career in the KHL, signed a one-year, entry-level contract worth $925K. Shumakov posted 17 goals and a career-high 40 points last year for CSKA Moscow. He is expected to arrive from Russia today.
  • Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription required) analyzes the play of Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who had a breakout season for Pittsburgh and who was arguably the team’s best player in their five-game series against the Washington Capitals in the playoffs last year. Domoulin, who partners with oft-injured Kris Letang, seemed to take off last year. Always a top defender, he even has started to show a little offense as he scored five goals. That may not sound like much, but considering his career-high had previously been one goal, that’s a big improvement. The team hopes he continues to get more involved in the offense this season.
  • In the same article, Yohe reports that head coach Mike Sullivan will miss a few days after the death of his father, George Sullivan. Assistant coach Jacques Martin will take over for Sullivan until he returns.
  • Sam Donnellon of Philly.com examines Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who just two years ago was looked at as a big part of the Flyers future. Fast forward to today and Stolarz is the fifth wheel in a goaltending system that already has too many goaltenders. Assuming things go as expected, the Flyers will be keeping Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth on their big-league club and will send Alex Lyon and top prospect Carter Hart to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. That leaves Stolarz, who missed most of last year after undergoing a second knee surgery. Donnellon writes while injuries are an issue amongst the veteran goalies, the likelihood that Lehigh Valley will institute a three-goalie system is unlikely, especially considering that the team needs to further develop Hart, their goalie of the future.

Capitals Officially Sign Sergei Shumakov

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The Capitals have added some depth to their group of wingers, announcing the signing of Russian forward Sergei Shumakov to a one-year, entry-level contract.  The contract will carry a cap hit of $925K at the NHL level, the maximum amount before bonuses.  The maximum minor league salary for this type of deal is $70K.  CapFriendly adds (Twitter link) that the contract also has an additional $425K in Schedule A performance bonuses.

It will be interesting to see if this contract contains a European Assignment Clause.  Shumakov will be waiver-exempt this coming season and it’s hard to imagine him wanting to spend a lot of time in the AHL knowing that he opted out of a deal back home to join Washington.

The 25-year-old is coming off of a career year in the KHL that saw him collect 17 goals and 23 assists in 47 regular season games; his 40 points ranked in a tie for 19th overall in league scoring.  He was expected to remain with CSKA Moscow until early this week when he terminated his contract.

Shumakov will now battle for a spot in Washington’s opening lineup.  The team is bringing back virtually the same lineup that won the Stanley Cup back in June but there are some openings in the bottom six following the departures of Jay Beagle and Alex Chiasson.  If he can land one of those spots, he should be able to give the Caps some extra scoring punch from their bottom lines.

Sergei Shumakov Expected To Sign With Washington Capitals

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Wednesday: Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post tweets that the contract is not finished, though the Capitals are “exploring it.” The deal has still not been announced, though there have been reports that Shumakov will not sign with either the Chicago Blackhawks (via Scott Powers of The Athletic) or New York Rangers (via Larry Brooks of the New York Post), two other teams that were linked to the Russian forward.

Tuesday: There had been recent reports that KHL forward Sergei Shumakov was looking for an NHL contract, and it appears he has found one on a team known for its Russian contingent. The Washington Capitals have signed Shumakov to a one-year entry-level contract according to NHL.com correspondent and Sovsport reporter Pavel Lysenkov. The Capitals have not announced the contract yet, but all signs point to the 25-year old joining Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Ilya Samsonov in the Washington organization.

Shumakov had the best offensive season of his career last season after moving over to CSKA Moscow, recording 40 points in 47 games and more goals—17—than fellow highly touted players like Kirill Kaprizov and Valeri Nichushkin. While Shumakov is several years older than those two, he still brings a level of offensive upside that could be very valuable to the Capitals as they look to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Washington has other young players like Jakub Vrana and Andre Burakovsky hoping to take big steps forward this season, but signing Shumakov can only improve their depth up front.

The contract of course guarantees Shumakov nothing in the way of playing time, given that he’ll be on a two-way deal like any other entry-level contract. The deal could very well include a European Assignment clause though, which could send Shumakov back to Russia if he can’t crack the NHL lineup. We won’t know that until the contract is announced, but for now Washington fans can just be happy they’ve added another forward with very little risk.

Sergei Shumakov Looking For NHL Contract

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3:39pm: If Shumakov does find a home in the NHL, it won’t be with the New York Rangers as Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports.

9:29am: Teams looking to get a late summer boost to their forward group may have a new name on their contact list, as Igor Eronko of Sport-Express reports that Sergei Shumakov is now looking to an NHL contract after terminating his deal in the KHL. Shumakov played last season for CSKA Moscow, scoring 40 points in 47 games. He was also invited to the Russian Olympic selection camp, but failed to crack the final roster that went on to win the gold medal.

Shumakov, 25, has been a talented offensive player in the KHL for several seasons but hasn’t been linked very often to NHL clubs. If that’s now changed, he’s bound to create some interest as a potential addition in free agency. Undrafted, Shumakov would cost a team nothing but money and opportunity to acquire and could still hold top-six potential. There’s no guarantee his game would fit into the North American style, but after recording at least 16 goals in each of his four full KHL seasons there is reason to believe he could at least provide some depth scoring to an NHL lineup.

Despite his age, Shumakov would be still be constrained by the entry-level system for one year, meaning any interested team would have very little at risk. If he can crack the lineup and prove to be an NHL talent, he’d be looking for a bigger contract in the 2019 offseason. If not, a team would be giving away less than $1MM in salary and cap space as a lottery ticket.

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