Fans of the Carolina Hurricanes may not have to wait too much longer to see the teams top prospect in a Hurricane uniform.
When Alexander Nikishin’s season ends playing for SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL later this spring, the KHL star defender could make the jump across the pond and join the Hurricanes. The 22 year-old’s contract expires at the conclusion of the KHL season and the expectation is Nikishin will be able to make the jump to the NHL. That is at least the hope from Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky when speaking about Nikishin’s future with NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
“As soon as his contract ends, we expect him to come over and hit our lineup and provide us a boost right away.”
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If Nikishin is indeed able to join the Hurricanes and insert himself in to the lineup right away that could be a huge boost for the Hurricanes.
Nikishin is a very gifted offensive defenseman, leading the KHL in scoring amongst defensemen for two years in a row. Last season the 6’3” 216 pound Nikishin scored 17 goals for SKA, adding 39 assists for a total of 56 points. That was also good for leading his team in points, finishing 1 point ahead of the highest scoring forward on the team in Sergey Tolchinsky, who had a brief stint with the Hurricanes playing 4 career games over two season with the Canes in the 15-16 and 16-17 seasons.
Aside from the high offensive numbers, Nikishin also led the KHL in plus/minus(+32) and brought home the award for the KHL’s top defenseman.
Nikishin will be teammates this coming season in SKA St. Petersburg with former Hurricane Evgeny Kuznetsov, who mutually agreed with GM Eric Tulsky to terminate his contract 3 weeks ago. While Kuznetsov was only in Carolina for a brief 30 regular season and playoff games combined, he will likely be able to give Nikishin some insight on what it is like to play hockey in the NHL and more specifically the Hurricanes.
Nikishin was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes with the 69th selection in the 3rd round of the 2020 NHL draft.
