Jets 2021 2nd rounder Nikita Chibrikov‘s agent Dan Milstein is reporting the deal is done. The last day of his KHL contract was yesterday which made today the first day he was eligible to sign a deal with Winnipeg.
The 2021 2nd rounder arrived in Manitoba last week as we reported and now will get a chance to start his career in North America. The 20 year old spent the 2022-23 season playing in various Russian leagues including 31 games for Spartak Moskva of the KHL.
During the media availability with Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff yesterday I asked him about the prospect and their plans for him:
“It’s really exciting actually to have that opportunity for him to get here. Nikita’s an exciting young player, I think that the fans are actually going to be really pleased with here once he gets acclimated to North America. We’ll go through that process obviously with a player coming from the KHL it’s a little bit different than just a player from junior or college and we’ll take those steps to make sure that the process is completed properly so that there’s no hiccups or anything like that. Obviously VISAs and different things come into play as well. But it’s exciting to have him. He made that commitment to us when we drafted him that he was going to not sign a contract over there because he wants to play in the National Hockey League and we’re excited to have him as part of our young group of players that are gonna grow and contribute to this organization.”
We shall see if he ends up signing an PTO with the Moose or if he just sticks around with them. For now he will have some help in getting acclimatized with fellow Jets prospects Dmitry Kuzmin (from Belarus) and Danny Zhilkin (Canadian but was born in Russia and lived there till he was 9) who were recently reassigned by Winnipeg from their junior teams.
Update:
Jets confirmed the deal with terms. It is an AAV of $925,000.00. The team confirmed he has signed a PTO and will remain with the Moose during their playoff run. They are currently even with the Admirals (1-1) and heading to Milwaukee for the final three games of the best of five series.
