Arseni Gritsyuk
Ah, the fun one. Arseni Gritsyuk is such an impactful player in the KHL right now. As of this writing, he has nine points in 10 games for St. Petersburg SKA. We don’t expect that output to end anytime soon. In fact, we expect Gritsyuk, our number-one prospect, to continue to get better and better.
Gritsyuk has said in the past that he plans to come to the NHL once his contract ends. He specifically talked about signing with the Devils next offseason. However, what if the Devils don’t wait until the offseason? What if the Devils want to get Gritsyuk to the NHL as soon as humanly possible?
SKA’s regular season ends at the end of March. Even with a proposed playoff run, he should be done before the Devils make waves in the playoffs.
It feels like a long shot, but there is a chance this could happen. If SKA goes deep into the playoffs, then the Devils would have to be deep in the playoffs for it to work. This is the longest KHL season in history in terms of calendar days, so it’s going to end later than usual. So, a Gagarin Cup champion could play until May 25th. We don’t expect that to be SKA, and we expect Gritsyuk to play a playoff game.