Will Vasily Ponomarev sign with KHL team?

Young Russian forward has a real decision to make about his future

Pittsburgh Penguins impending free agent Vasily Ponomarev may have made a career choice to head back to the KHL. Twitter reports have him signing with Avangard, although definitive and a formal filing of the completed contract has not happened as of yet.

It’s not stopping the excitement from Avangard’s perspective, who traded for Ponomarev’s KHL rights earlier today. The team also posted this to twitter:

Handy google translation: “Let’s see our newcomer, forward Vasily Ponomarev, in action Winner of the World Challenge Cup (2019), the Hlinka / Gretzky Cup (2019) and the Calder Cup (2022). He has been called up to the junior team more than once. And he has gained enough experience in North America”

Based on the team’s inputs and the way their GM has been talking about the move to acquire Ponomarev’s KHL rights, it sure does seem like they’re expecting him to sign with them or at least prepared to make a big run at signing the young forward.

As of the latest, that seems to be where this stands that Ponomarev at least has a real decision to make about where he wants to continue his career next season.

Ponomarev, 23, was acquired by Pittsburgh in the trade that sent Jake Guentzel to Carolina. Ponomarev has been in North America since 2022, mostly in the AHL.

Last season Ponomarev spent seven games in Pittsburgh, scoring zero points and averaging 10:02 of ice time per game. Figures in Pens’ management like Kyle Dubas often said they thought Ponomarev was close to making an NHL impact but other than call-ups for injury reasons, Ponomarev hasn’t yet gained much traction with the Pens and didn’t make much of a difference while on the ice in the games he did play.

Ponomarev has been something of a “good at everything, great at nothing” type of prospect. At 5’10 and 180 pounds he wasn’t big. He had the skill to produce in the AHL, Ponomarev put up 41 points (14 goals, 26 assists) in 55 games with Wilkes last season but found the ability to create offense a challenge at the NHL level where he was placed in a fourth line role.

“I’m trying to create more on offense and be smart in D-zone. But most of the time I am trying to make some interesting plays in the O-zone,” Ponomarev said at training camp last year in Pittsburgh. He had talked earlier of envisioning himself as a top-six or skilled player but couldn’t quite make it there at the NHL.

Ponomarev, on a standard two-way entry level contract, was making $80,000 for time spent in the AHL. As an impending restricted free agent Ponomarev could have negotiated for a bigger AHL salary but likely will find more money for next season and a bigger role with Avangard than he would have with Pittsburgh, where at best he was competing just to get into the NHL lineup at a low level role, or more likely spend time back in the minor leagues. Then again, if he sticks with the NHL, the minimum $800,000 salary is better money than most KHL players and he’ll get to compete in the top league in the world. It’s a tough call with pros and cons on both sides of the ledger.

If Pittsburgh offers a qualifying offer to Ponomarev then the Penguins would retain his NHL rights, regardless of where he decides to play next season. That would allow the Pens to sign Ponomarev down the line if he wanted to try his hand at North American hockey again, similar to the team’s recent signing of Filip Hallander who departed the organization for two seasons in Sweden before deciding to come back for 2025-26.