Vegas Golden Knights Sign Vadim Shipachyov to a Two-Year Contract

Vegas Golden Knights made their second player transaction Thursday night.

The Vegas Golden Knights signed their first player Reid Duke in March. It’s a signing that will be on NHL trivia for years to come. But most importantly it was a milestone that needed to get done, and they got it done.

Now, with all that history making stuff is aside, let’s get down to business. On Thursday, the Golden Knights signed KHL star Vadim Shipachyov to a two-year deal worth nine million dollars. It’s a pretty crazy contract considering it’s only two years and 4.5 million AAV going against the Vegas Cap.

Check out this small list of players that are making the same money as Shipachyov: Mats Zuccarello, TJ Oshie and Troy Brouwer. I’m not sure why the Golden Knights would spend this kind of money on a KHL player unless he has some super natural skill. Oh, and let’s keep in mind he’s already 30.

Let’s go over some of Shipachyov’s stats. This year he posted 26 goals, 50 assists and 76 Points for St. Petersburg SKA. He finished third in the scoring race which is quite impressive. The 30-year old averaged more than a point per game in the playoffs by racking up four goals, 16 assists and 20 points in 17 games played.

Certainly not bad stats by any stretch but we have to be realistic, this is the KHL. Goal scoring is a lot easier to come by in the KHL than the NHL. Ilya Kovalchuk will even give you the same answer.

However, with the money, he’s making it looks like he’ll be on the Golden Knights roster at some point during the 2017-2018 campaign. This is a rather interesting move from a Golden Knights standpoint. Apparently, this player was highly touted at last year’s World Championship Tournament and was on a lot of teams radars.

The playmaking Center loves to dish it out and make players around him better. He creates scoring opportunities by using his hands and quickness. He’s about the prototypical size for an NHL forward. He could, however, stand to shoot the puck more because he has the skill as you can see here.

Shipachyov got very high praise from other NHL’ers around the league. In an article back in May of 2016, Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet wrote a piece on Shipachyov. Washington Capitals star Evgeny Kuznetsov said, “He’s Russian Crosby.” Not sure if that was meant to be sarcastic or not but if he’s serious then maybe George McPhee knows what he’s doing.

Next: NHL Annouces List of Exempt Players from the Vegas Golden Knights Expansion Draft.

Well, see how this move pans out for the Golden Knights because it intrigues me. Many hockey insiders around the league have praised the Golden Knights front office and scouting department, so let’s hope they found a gem. For now, Duke finally has a soccer buddy Shipachyov, so he doesn’t have to play all by himself anymore.