Leafs prospect has KHL contract terminated; Is he Toronto-bound?
Some very interesting news to report coming out of Russia on Friday as Leafs prospect Dmitry Ovchinnikov has had his KHL contract terminated, per the official KHL website.
Ovchinnikov was a 5th round pick by the Leafs back in 2020, 137th overall. He had been bouncing back and forth for the past two seasons between the KHL and the MHL and there is some speculation that this could mean that he is North America-bound.
Ovchinnikov has 35 games of KHL experience as a 19-year-old, which is actually quite good, given the fact that it is very tough for young players to cut their teeth at the highest level in Russia.
While he has not produced much during his limited time in the KHL (just 4 points in 35 games), Ovchinnikov has been quite productive at the MHL level over the past 3 seasons. In fact, he is over a point per game in each of the last 3 seasons with Sibirskie Snaipery Novosibirsk.
In 22 games so far this season, Ovchinnikov has registered 13 goals and 29 points, which leads his team in scoring. What's so incredible about that? Well, the player closest to him (Yegor Verkhorubov) has just 26 points with 30 more games played than Ovchinnikov.
The kid is clearly too good to be playing where he is and if his KHL club does not have a spot for him to play meaningful minutes, it wouldn't surprise me if the Leafs forced his contract termination to get him to Toronto where they can oversee his development much more closely with the AHL's Toronto Marlies and get him acclimated to the North American game.
