Dmitri Semykin has signed a new contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I can't see why you'd sign a 20 YO and stick him on the bottom pairing in the AHL when you could let him develop in the KHL.

That makes no sense.

I think the better path for him would be in the MHL or even the KHL rather than him playing bottom pair in the AHL.

If he wants to play in the NHL, the best place for him to be is the AHL.

I just feel it isn't best for his development, but people develop differently.

If you look at a lot of the KHL players that come here to play in the NHL, they are usually put in the AHL first anyway. It's a huge difference. In some ways the AHL is faster and more physical than the NHL at times. There isn't really a better place to mold someone into a North American hockey player.

That makes sense

If you look at Tampa's AHL's defense, I don't even see a spot for him. I hope he can at least play constantly.

They can always send the lesser players to the ECHL

Leafs should trade a low end forward prospect for this guy. There's chance he could be a shutdown 3rd pairing/PK guy.

Tampa Bay's future replacement for Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, or Alex Killorn.

He's a defenseman.

How does it work when AHL players get sent to ECHL? I mean in terms of salary.

I have no clue. Maybe the same salary except the AHL team still pays part of the salary. That's just a guess though

I assume the ECHL teams cannot afford AHL salaries. The average salary is about $600 per week there.

Steve Dangle strikes again?

That's why I think the AHL team might still pay all of the salary or most of it

*peers at Syracuse Crunch roster* they only have 2 right-shot defenders: Cal Foote and Ben Thomas. Luke Witkowski does what Brendan Smith and Mark Pysyk do and swing between defense and wing.

besides, the AHL is a developmental league: there's a limit on the number of vets that can dress for any given game. they'll find a spot for Semykin.

tell that to Alexander Romanov and his... less than 13 minutes of TOI per game over the past 2 seasons with CSKA.

Probably agree, but it's going to be better than be lucky to play 10 minutes a night on the bottom pairing in the AHL.

I mean, we also appear to be making huge assumptions here about how much TOI Semykin's gonna get on the Crunch.

Again. Developmental league. Semykin's a 3rd-round pick; the organization clearly values him at least somewhat. This organization's clearly done a good job with bringing Russian players into the fold: Alex Volkov, Mikhail Shalagin, Oleg Sosunov, Alexei Lipanov. You'd think they know how to develop Semykin properly.

Steve Dangle who? jk.