It's very unlikely that Arseni Gritsyuk will play with New Jersey Devils this season

The New Jersey Devils are desperate for scoring right now. They have scored one or fewer goals in four of their last nine games. With Jack Hughes out of the lineup, and seeing how they looked against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday, those nights appear to be more frequent than not. There's not much saving grace now that the NHL Trade Deadline is over, but there was a strange nugget that came out of Tom Fitzgerald's press conference that could bring some hope.

Arseni Gritsyuk would absolutely help this Devils offense. While he would need time to showcase himself to the Devils, he's already proven he can score at a high level. He's currently playing for SKA St. Petersburg, one of the best teams in the KHL year in and year out. It's the team Ilya Kovalchuk "retired" to go play for.

This season, Gritsyuk has 38 points in 45 games. That matches his season total from last year and is two away from his KHL career high. Gritsyuk has had some trouble staying healthy the past two seasons, but upon his recent return, he was immediately placed on the top line with Mikhail Grigoreno and Sergei Andronov. He ended up with an assist on the power play, his 14th point in his last 15 games.

We've established why Tom Fitzgerald wants Gritsyuk on this team, but how could he get him to the Devils now instead of in the offseason when his contract ends?

We wrote earlier this year that Gritsyuk is going to have trouble coming to the NHL during the season. A change in the KHL removed them from the Russian Hockey Federation. That actually opened the door for Fitzgerald to even have this type of conversation. Yet, we learned in January that KHL contracts have been extended until May 31st. That would put the Devils very deep in the playoffs if they were able to add him.

There is a possibility the Devils could get Gritsyuk over sooner, but it is a complicated process that involves the Devils buying him out of his current deal. Even if New Jersey was willing to give up the goose to get Gritsyuk over the Atlantic Ocean, his team would have to agree to the buyout.

It's very unlikely we'll see Arseni Grisyuk in North America before the summer

Gritsyuk has never wavered that he wants to play in the NHL next season, specifically for the Devils. Still, it would be nice to have him now. It just seems nearly impossible to even consider. Montreal fans have been all over this as well, as our friends over at A Winning Habit talked about when the agreement went down. A player can come over as long as there is an agreement in place, but there's no precedence for a player to leave in the middle of their season.

Unlike a player like Ivan Demidov, Gritsyuk has no ties to the KHL this summer. He can walk for free, and the Devils have nobody to negotiate with other than Gritsyuk and his agent. That will be the most likely scenario based on what previous prospects have done and how the season has gone this year.