Per Laurie Carr of Beyond the Blueshirts (side note: If you don’t follow her on Twitter or read her blog, you’re missing out), Rangers defensive prospect Mikhail Pashnin is headed from CSKA to Yaroslavl in the KHL, in an attempt to rebuild the franchise that was devastated by a plane crash in September that killed the entire team.

Carr, citing Pashnin’s agent Alexei Dementiev, explains how the rebuilding of Yaroslavl has been taking place:

After the tragedy in occured in Yaroslavl, KHL teams adopted a “road map” with regards to restoration of the team in the Russian league.  Each club has been given the opportunity to protect two players born between 1989 and 1994. Mikhail wasn’t among this number, because CSKA has a large number of promising young players, and Lokomotiv was interested in his services.  Negotiations lasted a long time, but in the end he decided that he would move to the Yaroslavl team.

Pashnin was not protected by CSKA, and Locomotiv selected the former #1 overall pick of the KHL draft, and the Rangers 7th round pick in the 2009 draft.

Pashnin was rumored to be signing with the Rangers this past offseason, but instead inked a two year deal with CSKA, after some convincing from Slava Fetisov. Although Pasnin was looked on as an important piece for CSKA, he will have an even bigger role with Yaroslavl. Carr states that he will be looked upon as a leader, and this could significantly accelerate his development into a viable asset in the Rangers organization.

Share: 

Mentioned in this article:

More About: