Projected Top-10 draft pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft Valeri Nichushkin has declared his intentions to play in the National Hockey League.
The six-foot-four, 202-pound native of Chelyabinsk, Russia was previously connected with Dynamo Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League, reportedly signing a multi-million dollar contract with the club, but has been given permission to go to North America by the team.
“I have already decided I will go to the NHL,” Nichushkin said to R-Sport news agency in Russia.
“We agreed that [Dynamo Moscow] would let me go, but if something across the ocean goes wrong I will immediately go back to them,” he said.
The power forward, believed to go as high as third overall, is ranked second by NHL Central Scouting among European skaters in their final listings.
Nichushkin scored the overtime goal for Russia at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship’s bronze-medal game against Canada, and then went on to win the KHL’s rookie of the year award with four goals and two assists in 18 regular season games for his hometown club of Traktor Chelyabinsk.
