After his Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist were ousted from the KHL playoffs last week, the Vancouver Canucks plan to reach out to defenceman Nikita Tryamkin about his plans going forward, per Sportsnet‘s Elliotte Friedman.
The Canucks retain exclusive NHL rights to the hulking rearguard, who they selected in the third round (66th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft, and appeared interested in bringing him back to North America before he signed a one-year deal with Avtomobilist over the summer.
“We still really like him as a prospect and stuff and think he can be in our top six,” Canucks GM Jim Benning told Sportsnet‘s Iain MacIntyre last April.
“But until we get some conclusion on what’s going to happen this year and get more information for next year, we’re in a holding pattern to wait to see what that looks like before we start talking term and numbers with him.”
Friedman reports Tryamkin can’t play in the NHL this season.
The 26-year-old — who clocks in at six-foot-seven and 253 pounds — became a regular on the Canucks’ blue line in 2016-17, averaging 16:44 of ice time and recording nine points in 66 games.
But Tryamkin returned to his hometown of Yekaterinburg, Russia — where he began his career — for both personal and professional reasons. MacIntyre reported he and his partner had trouble adjusting to Vancouver and he was unhappy with his usage by former coach Willie Desjardins.
Though, per MacIntyre, Tryamkin was also dissatisfied with Avtomobilist last year — where he was given and then stripped of the captaincy — and wanted to return to Vancouver.
This season Tryamkin put up 15 points in 60 games while averaging 20:59 in ice time for Yekaterinburg.
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