Those waiting for Yegor Surin to make his NHL (or AHL) debut for the Nashville Predators organization will be disappointed to find out that the wait may have gotten that much longer.
After Renaud Lavoie posted on X that Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said Ivan Demidov won’t play for the Canadiens this season, NHL insider Frank Seravalli chimed in with an interesting nugget on a recent KHL policy change regarding contracts.
Seravalli believes that the KHL has extended the date contracts are effective through to May 31, putting a fork in any hopes that NHL teams had of bringing their foreign prospects over at the end of a given season.
Believe KHL contract end dates have been extended to May 31, which makes it tougher to envision scenario Demidov can play this season. https://t.co/UEHzyHgrvJ
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 8, 2025
According to the KHL’s official website, Surin’s contract with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl runs through May 31, 2026, which could push his NHL or AHL debut to Oct. 2026, at the earliest.
Given that the August-born Surin will be only 19 years old when his contract expires, it is entirely possible that he will start off in the AHL rather than the NHL.
After all, Surin has split this season between the KHL and the MHL, Russia’s junior hockey league. The Predators’ 2024 first-round pick has not yet established himself as a KHL regular, so it will take some time.
Even if Surin does join the Predators or the AHL Milwaukee Admirals in 2026, some precedent suggests he can cross the Atlantic earlier in the year than May.
For example, HC Sochi traded Borna Rendulic to SKA St. Petersburg, Demidov’s club, at the start of the last KHL season for Minnesota Wild center Marat Khusnutdinov. Once Sochi, one of the KHL’s worst teams, was eliminated from the playoffs, Sochi terminated Khusnutdinov’s contract, allowing him to sign with the Wild on Feb. 28 and begin his NHL career.
Philadelphia Flyers goalie Aleksei Kolosov spent the 2023-24 season on loan with Dinamo Minsk after having already signed an entry-level contract. Minsk was dumped in the first round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs on March 12, and on March 26, Minsk announced that Kolosov was departing for Philadelphia.
So, while Surin cannot, in theory, leave the KHL to join the Predators organization until May 31 of any given year while under contract, Sochi set a precedent for doing a player a solid and letting them go early.
If Surin signs with the Predators and leaves on loan, he would be free to return to North America upon the end of his season in the KHL.
This is all possible, though not guaranteed, of course. How this new change ultimately affects Surin and the Predators will be something to monitor going forward.
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