Yesterday was among the more eventful openings to free agent frenzy in recent memory, with a swath of top-end unrestricted free agents finding new homes. Contrary to how General Manager Ray Shero usually approaches free agency, the New Jersey Devils dipped into the free agent market pool, signing right wing Wayne Simmonds to a one-year deal for $5 million.
The reactions on bringing Simmonds in were relatively mixed and with the Devils hovering slightly above the cap floor, many believe Shero isn’t done making moves. As a consequence of their tight salary cap situation, the Vegas Golden Knights are reportedly shopping Russian center Nikita Gusev, whose rights they own after signing him to a one-year entry level deal back in April.
Understandably, there is a lot of hype surrounding the 26-year old forward, who has played his entire professional career in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). This past season, Gusev’s 17 goals and 82 points led the league in scoring, which for many New Jersey Devils fans is enough to get them drooling over the aspect of acquiring the dynamic forward.
One of our recent articles highlighted the reasons on why the New Jersey Devils should acquire Gusev and while the piece made a sound argument, this write up will break down why trading for the Russian center could be a waste of cap and a roster space.
As I previously mentioned, Gusev is 26-years old and spent his developmental years in the KHL, an overseas league that has a series of fundamental differences from the NHL such as rink size, degree of in-game physicality and quality of competition. The conversation would be different if Gusev were still in his teens or early-twenties, when his development would be at its most impressionable.
Instead of a top-end prospect with genuine upside, Gusev is a matured professional with nine seasons—all in the KHL—under his belt. The only type of hockey he’s ever played is KHL-style hockey and acclimating to the North American style of play doesn’t happen overnight—if the player is even able to make such a transition.
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This segues into my next point regarding the relatively unsuccessful history of career KHLers joining NHL teams without any previous experience playing in North America professionally. Whenever I’ve brought this point up during discussions over the pros and cons of acquiring Gusev, proponents of trading for the 26-year old center point to the success of winger Artemi Panarin—who as we all know cashed out big time on July 1—along with forwards like Alex Radulov.
Radoluv doesn’t necessarily count since he previously played in the NHL, before playing parts of eight seasons in the KHL and returning to North America for the 2016-2017 season. While Panarin is the one exception I can’t argue against, the pro-Gusev crowd struggles to name another example outside of the skilled left wing.
Simply put, recent history shows that career-KHLers without any prior NHL experience don’t pan out well when they come to North America. The best example is center Vadim Shipachyov, who coincidentally also signed with the Golden Knights for their inaugural season in 2017-2018. Then 30 years old, Shipachyov had no NHL experience, but played nine KHL seasons before signing with Vegas and only played three games in the 2017-2018 NHL season before returning to Russia.
Yes, you can argue he might have been mismanaged or not given his fair share, but Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee noted the center needed time to adjust to the North American style of play, which was one of the reasons why he was demoted to the AHL when the 2017-2018 season began.
Our own New Jersey Devils signed Sergey Kalinin for the 2015-2016 season, who previously played parts of six seasons in the KHL prior to his NHL debut. Kalinin played 78 games during his rookie campaign, but managed just eight goals and 15 points on an offensively inept New Jersey Devils team. He had just two goals and four points in 43 games the following season, before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he played out the rest of his 2016-2017 campaign with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and has since returned to Russia.
This is more of a personal preference on my part, but Gusev is 5’9’’ and 154lbs. While smaller players have much more room for growth in the NHL nowadays, New Jersey’s top forwards (Jack Hughes included) aren’t the biggest group in the league. If recent postseasons have shown us anything, it’s that teams who largely rely on undersized and/or lighter forwards haven’t fared too well—look at the Tampa Bay Lightning this year and in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals when they matched up against the Washington Capitals, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs the last three postseasons.
Lastly, Gusev is listed as a center, which the New Jersey Devils have an abundance of on their current roster. Yes, he can try sliding to the wing, but that would be another transitional burden he would have to deal with, while already acclimating to the North American style of play. (Editor’s note, Gusev did play a little time at center, but he spent most of his time on the left wing.)