Former Capitals Forward Seeks NHL Return

For many professional hockey players, the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) has served as a league that’s either rejuvenated careers or caused them to vanish, and for now, Evgeny Kuznetsov looks to do the former. 

According to Yahoo Sports, Shumi Babayev, Kuznetsov’s agent, announced that Kuznetsov will be playing in North America next season. The Chelyabinsk, Russian native, will attempt to carry over his success in the KHL from this past season to North America, where he scored 37 points in 39 games playing for SKA St. Petersburg, according to EliteProspects.com.

That production is unlike what we saw in 2023-2024, his most recent year in the NHL. He had a poor start to that season with the Washington Capitals, with 17 points in 43 games, going on to enter NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Things would spiral even further for Kuznetsov from there and the Capitals demoted him to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Hershey Bears shortly after returning from the program. He was then traded to Carolina for a third-round pick in this year’s draft.

At 33 years old, Kuznetsov may not be able to produce like he used to as a Capital, where he put up 50-80 point seasons, but he could prove to be a serviceable depth centerman for some teams. It’s not like Babayev is plainly just forcing his client’s way back into North American competition. He, like everybody else in the hockey world, understands how razor-thin the center market is in the NHL this off-season. So, if there was ever a time for Kuznetsov to make a return to the NHL, it’s next season. 

After center men such as Sam Bennett and Pius Suter, the next best center man set to hit the open market is 37-year-old Claude Giroux, making Kuznetsov’s abilities worth the risk after a successful hiatus from the NHL.

 If teams aren’t willing to take the risk of signing Kuznetsov this off-season, they could always wait until next year’s trade deadline and sign him for a playoff run. Over his 97 playoff games, Kuznetsov has scored 33 goals and 73 points, highlighted by his 2017-18 postseason, where he led all Capitals in scoring during their Cup-winning year with 32 points in 24 games, per HockeyReference.com. It was a postseason in which Kuznetsov probably scored the most memorable goal of his career and probably in Capitals history. After years of meeting the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs, Washington just never seemed able to break through until Kuznetsov’s overtime winner in Game 6 of Round 2, which slayed their playoff demons.