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Maltsev Loaned to SKA St. Petersburg of KHL

First off, I apologize for the lack of content recently. I have had some Microsoft Word problems and have been letting the Playoffs run their course before getting back into things.

And speaking of the Playoffs, congratulations to former Devil Blake Coleman, who not only won the Stanley Cup last night with a 2-0 Tampa Bay Lightning win over the Dallas Stars in game six of the Final, but also tallied that second goal for Tampa in their Cup clincher. When it became obvious that Tampa was going to win, I was rooting for Dallas to get on the board with one so that Coleman’s goal would go down as the Cup-clincher. That was not to be, but congrats to him and the Lightning on their redemption championship following last year’s implosion at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Former Devils goaltender Scott Wedgewood was also a part of the winners, as the third goalie on the roster. Not sure if his name will get on the Cup, but as Devils Insiders pointed out on Twitter, it was good to see him get to skate the Cup last night in Edmonton anyway.

Now on to the business at hand. Devils forward prospect Mikhail Maltsev has been loaned to SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League according to a press release put out by the Devils today.

He will be recalled prior to the beginning of NHL training camp for the 2020-21 season in November.

According to the press release, Maltsev spent last season with the Binghamton Devils of the American Hockey League where he notched 11 goals, 10 assists for a total of 21 points over 49 games played.

Like all of the other loaning out of prospects in recent months, this is merely a way for Maltsev to get some reps while the NHL is in its unconventional offseason.

As mentioned, he will be brought back to North America prior to training camp, but will be playing in his native Russia for the time-being.

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KHL Is Latest to Cancel Their Season

The KHL has gone home early for the 2019-20 season due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The league put out a press release on the news this past Wednesday.

The press release stated that the “KHL seriously considered a variety of options to complete the 2019-20 season, including playing out the championship at a later date in the year. However, it has been decided that this would cause too great of a disruption to the 2020-21 season.”

The KHL was in the middle of the second round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs at the time the season was officially ended. Two teams not located in Russia had withdrawn from the playoffs due to recommendations from their country’s health officials.

The press release also noted that final standings will be decided “at an upcoming KHL Board of Directors meeting. They will also make all necessary decisions relating to the 2020-21 championship. All the decisions will be communicated as soon as possible.”

KHL President Alexey Morozov had this to say: “It’s unfortunate that we have to finish the season early, and it wasn’t an easy decision. I’m sure that every fan, along with us, wanted to see the conclusion of the competition. However, the health of players and their loved ones, club employees, employees of the sports facilities, and, of course, the fans, is much more important.”

He also said that he hoped “that the current situation will not affect next season.”

There was no word on if the Gagarin Cup will be awarded based on overall standings or if it will just not be presented this season.

This was kind of inevitable, as the KHL season starts earlier and ends earlier then the NHL’s. It should be interesting if the NHL has to go this route due to the effect the postponing of the 2019-20 season would have on the 2020-21 season.