It’s been a tumultuous week for former 40-goal scorer Alexander Semin.
The Montreal Canadiens waived him on Monday. On Tuesday, he cleared, with 29 teams passing on the opportunity of grabbing his bargain basement $1.1 million contract for peanuts. On Wednesday, the team placed him on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a mutually agreed upon termination of his contract.
When he clears waivers on Thursday, it appears that he’ll sign a contract to finish the season with Magnitogorsk Metallurg in the KHL, according to Igor Eronko of Sport-Express. The deal will not cover anything more than the remainder of the 2015-16 season.
There, Semin will join top goaltending prospect Ilya Samsonov and former NHLer and shootout wiz Wojtek Wolski on the sixth place team who is well on their way to the KHL postseason.
This likely means that Semin’s tumultuous time in the NHL is at an end. He was wildly productive through most of his career and saw reports of his play from teammates vary wildly from Eric Staal saying he’s the most talented player he’d ever played with to others saying that they never felt like they could trust that he’d show up for any given game.
He’ll finish having played 11 NHL seasons, topping out at 40 goals and 84 points with the Washington Capitals in the 2009-10 season. All-in, he played 650 NHL games, scoring 239 goals and 278 assists.