Alexander Barabanov has signed a new contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Plan the parade

This signing locks up the next 3 Stanley Cups. Plan the parade x 3

Toronto hopes he is another Mikheyev...

These are the kind of signing teams like Toronto need to try out. That said I doubt he has much NHL upside

That's not a D man

This is the signing Leafs Nation has been waiting for. Can't wait to see how it turns out. But if they were going to get an NHL player out of the KHL, I think it would do them more good at RD or G.

Amazing how defensive and sarcastic people get when the Leafs make a modest depth signing. Come out of the closet already you secret Leafs fans.

My comment was neither defensive nor sarcastic. I was merely opining that Toronto doesn't really seem to be in need of forwards.

YES!!!!!???????
Now here comes a trade.

But they do need to trade forwards for a defensemen on a good contract .....

So if Mikheyev + Barabanov can replace Johnsson + Kapanen or Kerfoot than the Leafs can add a Muzzin level RD for free.

No sarcasm from me. The leafs need another forward at the moment like we need another hole in the ground. Try improving the back end and help Andersen a bit.

Great signing! Dubas is bad at signing star players but he sure does a good job getting high end talent from abroad.

Does anyone know why he is a UFA rather than an RFA after this year?

All these people making fun of the Leafs for signing another forward when they need a D. No s***. If you can get these Russian players to play a top 9 role then can trade guys like Kapanen/Johnsson for D

UFA (likely a Group 6 I think?) as per CapFriendly CBA definitions above ^ ^ ^

A player whose contract is expiring and meets all of the following conditions will become an unrestricted free agent (UFA):
The player is 25 years or older (as of June 30th of the calendar year the contract is expiring).
The player has completed 3 or more professional seasons - qualified by 11 or more professional games (for an 18/19 year old player), or 1 or more professional games (for a player aged 20 or older). This can include NHL, minor league, and European professional league seasons played while under an SPC.
The player has played less than 80 NHL games, or 28 NHL games of 30 minutes or greater for a goaltender.

What am I missing about this kid? He wasn't in the top 150 in production for the KHL this year and barley in the top 130 for P/GP. You look at the top scorers and its mostly guys who couldn't cut it in the NHL. I mean FFS Nigel Dawes was 5th in scoring and 10th in P/GP.

His birthday is June 1994, so he'll be 27 by July 1, 2021.