Keep in mind that Russia athletes are currently banned from the Olympics and IIHF-related events. As far as we know, that ban currently lasts through the 2024 Olympics and for 2024-25 IIHF events. We know that Russia is not involved in the 4-Nations tournament taking place with NHL players this coming February.

In addition to the above changes, the KHL announced that their season will now end in May as opposed to April.

How does this impact some of the top prospects for the Avalanche?

The KHL separating from the FHR is big news in that it should mean a separation of church and state, opposite to how things have been run for decades over in Russia. That should mean more freedom for some of the players over there. We recently saw Matvei Michkov terminate his KHL contract to make the leap to North America, although that process didn’t really seem all that simple. That move was completed before these changes were announced, though. Although details around these changes are still coming out, it would seem that if an NHL team wants to try and get a player to North America sooner, they would have to come to an agreement with the KHL club. Easier said than done, but still possible.

Colorado currently has three of their top prospects playing in the KHL – Mikhail Gulyayev, Ilya Nabokov, and Zakhar Bardakov. The latter two only have one year remaining on their KHL contracts, so if the Avalanche are patient, they might just get both of those players to North America after next season. As previously reported by CHN, we know Bardakov has interest in joining the Avalanche in 2025. He shares the same agent with Nabokov, who told CHN after the NHL Draft that they’ll come to a decision on Nabokov’s future “soon.”

The Avalanche currently don’t have a third goaltender signed for next season. Could they be trying to convince Nabokov to come over to North America a year early and play in the AHL? It’s possible, but with KHL training camps opening up in less than a month, and Nabokov being a pretty important player on his team, that would seem unlikely to me. Plus, as Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland told CHN earlier this month, the organization is pretty happy with Nabokov’s setup for the coming year.

“He was a guy that our goaltending department and our scouts had significant interest in, and was a key part in terms of moving back,” MacFarland said of Colorado’s top draft pick. “It’s something that as the year moves on, we feel he’s got a good development situation this year. We’ll attack that as the year moves along, but we want to see him have a great year, play a ton of hockey, and go from there.”

The prospect who this could impact the most is Gulyayev. One of Colorado’s first round picks in 2023, he signed an extension before the start of last season that keeps him with his KHL club until April of 2026. The 19 year old earned more and more ice-time as the year went on in the KHL, which is tough to do for a teenage defenseman in that league. As you’d expect, Colorado was pretty happy with what they saw

“That’s huge. That’s a tough league to play in as a young guy,” Avalanche director of player development Brian Willsie said of Gulyayev last week. “We watched him closely. We obviously have scouts over there watching him, but with video now, we can watch all his games and his shifts. It’s not easy, and they don’t give opportunities out freely over there to young guys. That’s the way they do it. For him to get the minutes that he had and the opportunity was a great experience. Real good development year and we’ll watch him closely again.”

Although Gulyayev earned more ice-time as the year went on, he still wasn’t able to earn much time on the penalty kill or powerplay. He’s got skill offensively and you’d like to see that shine through, but it’s difficult for a teenager to earn those reps in the KHL when those spots typically go to veterans. Another year in the KHL playing against men in a very good league won’t hurt his development, but if there’s a way for the Avalanche to get him over to North America after next season, they should look into it. The changes mentioned earlier might make it a little easier for them to make that move, if they wanted to.