On the Vegas Golden Knights and Evgeni Dadonov and Vadim Shipachyov …
Igor Eronko: Source saying that the Vegas Golden Knights are also interested in Evgeni Dadonov.
Aivis Kalnins: Reports out of Russia today have the Golden Knights after Dadonov
Aivis Kalnins: Hearing that Vegas has offered Dadonov a similar deal to the one they gave Vadim Shipachyov (two-years, $9 million) but with a lower dollar amount.
Slava Malamud: Dadonov could be looking at the Montreal Canadiens.
Eric Engels: Vadim Shipachyov had a four-year, $20 million contract offer from St. Petersburg before deciding to sign with Vegas.
Eric Engels: Shipachyov’s camp had reached out to the Montreal Canadiens about 10 days ago.
Slava Malamud: Shipachyov left a lot of money on the table as SKA was willing to offer a lot.
Vegas Golden Knights: The Golden Knights signed Russian free agent forward Vadim Shipachyov to a two-year contract with a $4.5 million salary cap hit.
“Vadim is a highly skilled playmaker who has had an impressive career in the Kontinental Hockey League,” said Vegas Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee. “He has won two KHL championships, has been among the league leaders in scoring the last two seasons and has enjoyed success at the international level for Team Russia. We believe he can be an impact player in the NHL.”
Steve Carp: “The KHL is a quality hockey league and Shipachyov has been one of its top players the past few years. He’s 30 but still has tread on tires. Shipachyov has been part of two KHL championship teams with SKA Saint Petersburg (2015 and 2017). He was third in KHL in scoring this year.”
On the KHL …
Slava Malamud: (@mirtle asked why some top players are leaving) “KHL is a swamp. Good money, terrible hockey, nothing left to prove. NHL offers competition, self-evaluation, pride, chance at real stardom”
Slava Malamud: SKA really wanted to keep Ilya Kovalchuk, Dadonov and Shipachyov and is still willing to pay top money to keep Kovalchuk and Dadonov, but they both want out.
Slava Malamud: The KHL currently have 29 teams of which two teams are super-rich, two are financially viable and 25 are “poor-to-indigent-to-unsustainable”, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that players want out.
Slava Malamud: SKA and CSKA are the super-rich, Metallurg and Jokerit are the viable.
