Valeri Nichushkin played 57 games with the Dallas Stars last season as a forward and didn’t score a goal. Despite being the 10th overall pick of the 2013 NHL entry draft by Dallas, despite being just 24 years old, the Stars actually bought out the final year of Nichushkin’s existing contract – which had a $2.95 million cap hit.

Enter Joe Sakic and the Avs, who essentially are taking a one-year flyer on the Russian winger. On Monday afternoon, the Avs signed him to a one-year, $850,000 deal. Now why in the world would they do this?

Well, this kind of signing fits the mold the Avs have done so often over the years; find a guy who has talent, who has fallen through the cracks a bit and hope they can rejuvenate themselves in Denver. We saw that with Nail Yakupov a couple years ago and that didn’t…well, let’s not go there.

At one time, Nichushkin was thought to have a very big future in Dallas. As a rookie, he often skated on the top line, and his stats that season – 2013-14 – weren’t all that bad: 14 goals, 34 points in 79 games, plus-20. It mostly was all downhill after that.

In 2014-15, Nichushkin suffered a pretty bad hip injury that limited him to just eight games. The following season, he scored nine goals and 29 points for the Stars in 79 games. After not being able to come to a contract agreement with the Stars, Nichushkin went back to Russia to play in the KHL. The Stars, still owning his NHL rights, signed him to a new two-year, $5.9 million deal in 2018. Then came the goose-egg season in goals. Then came the buyout from the Stars.

Now, he’s an Av. Where he slots into the lineup? Well, right now he probably doesn’t. He enters this coming season as, most likely, depth in case of injury. He’s got talent, but he hasn’t shown the ability to score regularly in this league in quite a while.

The Avs are, again, just taking a flyer, hoping to land a bargain from the salvage yard. From the Avs’ release:

The Stars’ first pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft (10th overall), Nichushkin has also appeared in five career contests (0g/4a) with Dallas’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Texas Stars, and has dressed in 104 career KHL games (31g/26a) in Russia with Traktor Chelyabinsk and CSKA Moscow. The Chelyabinsk, Russia, native has registered 23 points (10g/13a) in 53 career KHL postseason contests.

“Valeri is a big, young winger who adds depth to our roster and brings competition to our training camp,” said Avalanche Executive Vice President / General Manager Joe Sakic.  “He brings NHL experience to our team and we are excited to have him with our organization.”

Prior to playing for Dallas in 2018-19, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward spent the previous two seasons skating for CSKA Moscow. Nichushkin was named to the KHL All-Star Game in 2016-17 after producing 24 points (11g/13a) in 36 regular-season outings and then recorded 27 points (16g/11a) in 50 games in 2017-18 while also leading the team with seven game-winning goals, two of which were in overtime.

Internationally, Nichushkin (pronounced nih-CHOOSH-kihn) won a bronze medal with Team Russia at the 2017 IIHF World Championship and represented his country at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. He also won a bronze medal with Russia at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship and competed at the 2011 World Junior A Challenge, the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge and the 2012 and 2013 IIHF U18 World Championships.