Nashville Predators’ Belarusian left winger Sergei Kostitsyn signs with Avangard Omsk in KHL
Sergei Kostitsyn, a Belarusian professional ice hockey player who currently plays for Nashville Predators in the National Hockey League (NHL), has become another player to move out of America as he signed for Avangard Omsk in the Kontinental Hockey League
(KHL).
Since the NHL lockout, cancellation of pre-season and the first three weeks of the regular season hundreds of players, most of them being foreigners, have packed their luggage and shifted to different top leagues of the world, most of them being in Sweden,
Finland and Russia.
Since Russia’s KHL is one of the most competitive leagues in the world and one of the best as well, a lot of NHL have gone there, latest being Predators’ left winger.
The forward who has been one of the most regular member of the side which plays in the Central Division of the Western Conference, would join some former NHL players and Columbus Blue Jackets’ Nikita Nikitin in the Avangard Omsk team. Former NHL players
are Alexander Frolov, Martin Skoula, and Karri Ramo.
Another thing that will make him excited about joining the Russian league is that his brother Andrei Kostitsyn also plays there, who had signed for Traktor Chelyabinsk there.
The 25-year-old player will surely miss NHL and America, the place where he has played almost all of his hockey since he started his career. He had started the career with London Knights in the Ontario Hockey League (AHL) in the 2005-2006 season.
In the same season he was picked up by Montreal Canadiens in the 7th round of the NHL Draft as they selected him 200th overall.
After playing for Knights in OHL for two seasons, Kostitsyn moved to American Hockey League (AHL), shortly before making his NHL debut for Canadiens.
Navapolatsk, Belarus native played two seasons there and scored exactly 50 points, 17 goals, 33 assists in 108 games before being sent back to AHL. After playing one more season for Canadiens, Kostitsyn moved to Predators and has been a very consistent player
in last two seasons, scoring 40 goals, 53 assists and 93 total points in the 152 games he has played in.
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