Friday, April 19, 2019

Top Prospect Signings (Apr 19)



This past week, the Dallas Stars locked up one of their top prospects for the start of next season, 2016 1st round draft pick Riley Tufte. Tufte and the Stars agreed upon a 3-year entry-level deal, which will start next season and work the rookie maximum cap hit of $925,000, but doesn't have a great deal, in terms of performance bonuses, according to CapFriendly.

Tufte just finished his 3rd season with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he didn't put up any staggering numbers, but he does have a staggering body size, 6'5" and 190 pounds, so he should be able to jump right into the league at 21 years old and probably pick up a solid bottom six role to start.  It will be interesting to see how he fits into the Stars' scheme next season.

The Vegas Golden Knights finally lured Russian forward Nikita Gusev over to North America, as he had been playing in the KHL since he was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning back in 2012.  Gusev was dealt to the Golden Knights prior to the expansion draft, as part of a deal that would see the Golden Knights play ball and claim the right player in the draft.  Nevertheless, Gusev has joined the Golden Knights for the playoff run, signing a deal that goes through to the remainder of the playoffs and he will be a restricted free agent come July 1st.

The plan for Gusev is to possibly dress in a playoff game, but at the very least, have him acclimate himself in the North American rinks ahead of joining the team next season.  This past season, he posted 82 points in 62 games with St. Petersburg in the KHL and the last time we saw him on this blog page, he was part of the Russian team at the Olympics and was selected in the pool we had there.  He will be an interesting figure next season, possibly good for a late round pick.

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