Islanders: Anatoly Golyshev expected to sign after KHL contract terminated

New York Islanders fans awoke to some interesting news this morning. The KHL announced that Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist forward Anatoly Golyshev has terminated his contract with the KHL club.

The expected destination: Long Island.

Golyshev was drafted by the Islanders in the fourth round of the 2016 NHL draft. Because he was drafted out of the KHL, the Isles held Golyshev’s NHL right indefinitely. Now, five years after Garth Snow selected him, Lou Lamoriello is seemingly going to add the middle six left-wing he needs.

Anatoly Golyshev to join New York Islanders

A team representative for Avtomobilist confirmed to me that Anatoly had terminated his contract in order to move to North America. Something the player had stated in no uncertain terms just under a year ago.

So what kind of player is he? What are the Islanders getting?

As the official KHL tweet stated when it broke the news, Golyshev is the franchise leader in goals (109) and points (220). He’s a tenacious offensive player who works hard and can provide good depth offense at the NHL level.

Based on translation factors that I use with my prospects rankings, he could be a 35-ish point player at the NHL level.

Will he jump to the NHL immediately?

Who knows what the Islanders plan on doing with him, but with what they’re looking to add (a middle-six left-wing), and what Golyshev brings to the table it would seem that he’d be a perfect fit.

And while the Islanders are hesitant to integrate rookies, Golyshev is a 26-year-old man with eight years of professional experience at the second-highest level of hockey in the world. It seems that with a bit of practice time he might be able to give them what they need.

But, again, who knows, they could just as easily start his North American journey a bit slower by having him play with the Sound Tigers for a few games before bringing him up.

With a mandatory quarantine, don’t expect him to be anywhere near the ice for a few days (at least 10) plus travel time and so on. This won’t be an immediate addition to the club, but he’s taken that first and important step towards an NHL career.