Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

After leaving Las Vegas, Vadim Shipachyov signs contract in KHL

Boston Bruins v Vegas Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 15: Vadim Shipachyov #87 of the Vegas Golden Knights skates during a break in the second period of a game against the Boston Bruins at T-Mobile Arena on October 15, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Golden Knights won 3-1. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Getty Images

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- Russian forward Vadim Shipachyov signed Saturday with SKA St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League after quitting a deal with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.

Shipachyov returns to the team where he won two KHL championships. He is on a one-year contract which leaves him free to play at the Winter Olympics.

Vegas said Thursday that Shipachyov’s contract was ended after he refused to play for its AHL affiliate. He is officially considered “voluntarily retired” from the NHL.

Shipachyov appeared unhappy with his former team in a statement issued by SKA on Saturday.

“They say one thing to your face and when it comes to hockey, something else,” he said, adding that his NHL experience had been “two months of misunderstandings, smiles and conversations which had nothing to do with reality.”

The center was Vegas’ second-ever signing and he arrived amid hype from his performances in the KHL and for the Russian national team.

Shipachyov scored in his first game for Vegas but that was the only goal of his three-game NHL career.