It’s official! Nikita Filatov has climbed onto his magical potential carpet and floated away to the jewel of Russia. Filatov has fled to CSKA Moskva to play for his hometown youth team in the KHL. After complaining of not getting the minutes he wanted and not wanting to be sent down again to Binghamton he made the request to Murray. The move for him was a decent gamble by the Sens in my opinion but it just hasn’t worked out. The Senators will still hold his rights in a similar way that Nashville holds Radulov's rights. This means that even if he should sign a KHL contract he will still be retained by the Sens should he return.
Is this the last we will see of Filatov in North America? Probably the first question on everybody’s mind. Moskva is a rich squad and likes to spend money so I can see them paying him quite handsomely to stay. In the KHL I expect he will be a strong player and considering his up and down failures in the NHL vs his success for Russia I can see him staying. It just makes sense. He won’t be bounced around, he’ll be on a championship contending team and he will likely get paid well. Win, win, win for the 21 year old.
So I get to watch Filatov and Tikhonov on the same team! It’s like revenge of the Russian Busts!
What are your thoughts on this guys? Does this officially put him in the "bust" category? Will this further put a stigma on Russian born players? Will this hurt their draft status even more?
I can't wait to see Yost's fantastic take on this.
Thanks for reading
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