Mike Vecchione’s career with Traktor Chelyabinsk ended before it ever began.

Tuesday, the KHL club announced that it traded the two-time Calder Cup champion forward to Barys Astana for cash considerations. Vecchione was set to join former Hershey Bears teammates Logan Day and Pierrick Dubé on the team this season.

The swap comes 14 days after Vecchione officially signed with Traktor on July 30. Per Metaratings, Vecchione’s one-year deal is worth $40 million rubles per season — approximately $500k in USD.

“In Mike Vecchione, Traktor gets a high-quality two-way forward of the North American style,” Alexey Volkov, Traktor’s general manager, said in a release announcing the signing and as translated by Google Translate. “He has a lot of winning experience, having won the Calder Cup twice and in one of them scored the decisive goal in overtime. His strengths include skating, game thinking and shooting. With his attack-oriented nature, Mike is also capable of performing defensive functions, being a truly versatile forward. Such hockey players are always the core of teams that set serious goals for themselves. Welcome to hockey city!”

Barys Astana, the only KHL team located in Kazakhstan, lost 54 of 68 games last season, finishing last in the Eastern Conference with 35 standings points. The team was led by 27-year-old defenseman Adil Beketayev during the 2024-25 campaign, who posted 19 points (5g, 14a) in 62 games.

The impetus for the trade does not appear to be buyer’s remorse on Traktor’s end or Vecchione not wanting to play there. Traktor is reportedly pursuing Canadian forward Josh Leivo, who had his contract recently terminated by Salavat Yulaev after arriving late for training camp (Sports.ru suggests the team can no longer pay his salary). Traktor already had five foreign players on their roster, the maximum allowed under the league’s memorandum of understanding. Defenseman Logan Day was also a candidate to be cut per Metaratings before the Vecchione trade.

Leivo, 32, was the KHL’s leading goal and point-scorer last season. The former Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick scored 49 goals and registered 80 points in 62 games, adding 15 points in the postseason. Arthur Khairullin reported on Telegram that Leivo would make no more than $80 million rubles (~$1 million USD) if signed by the Chelyabinsk team. Traktor is coming off a fantastic season where they advanced to the Gagarin Cup Finals but lost to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in five games.

Vecchione, who got married over the weekend, is set to play his first season overseas this year.