The shady allure of the Kontinental Hockey League appears it will take another loss.
Winnipeg Jets property Alexander Burmistrov is reportedly planning to return to the National Hockey League — and Canada — now that his two-year agreement with Ak Bars Kazan is complete.
The news was delivered to sport.business-gazeta.ru Thursday by Burmistrov’s KHL teammate, defenceman Evgeni Medvedev — who signed his own NHL deal, a one-year, $3-million pact with the Philadelphia Flyers, Wednesday.
“Alexander Burmistrov will also leave the KHL for Canada,” Medvedev told the Russian outlet, translated by reporter Igor Eronko:
The vague threat of Russian-born NHLers fleeing for the KHL reached its peak when Ilya Kovalchuk left the New Jersey Devils in 2013. The 2014-15 season saw Leo Komarov, Jori Lehtera and Andrei Vasilevsky bolt the KHL for the NHL, and the European league’s top scorer this season, Steve Moses, has joined the Nashville Predators.
Former NHLer Ryan Whitney, who played for KHL expansion club Sochi HC this year, told Sportsnet he hasn’t been paid since before January.
If Burmistrov, 23, does return to North America, the centre’s rights will still be controlled the Jets until he turns 27.
The Toronto Sun reported on Feb. 21 that the Toronto Maple Leafs have interest in acquiring the former member of the OHL Barrie Colts.
The 2010 eighth-overall pick (by the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers) scored 20 goals and 43 assists in 107 KHL games. With the Thrashers/Jets, he registered 23 goals and 35 assists in 194 games.