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That wasn’t the case with Nikita Tryamkin, who left the KHL to play for the Vancouver Canucks when he was 21 years old. At the time, he wasn’t fully developed as a defenceman — whether he was playing in the KHL or NHL. So it wasn’t surprising that Tryamkin struggled this season, sitting out games as a healthy scratch, logging bottom-pairing minutes and taking far too many penalties.

At the end of the season, with Tryamkin’s contract up, the third-round pick re-signed with his old team in the KHL.

“It’s disappointing we lost Nikita, because over the course of the year he made some strides,” said Canucks GM Jim Benning. “We’re going to qualify him this summer and we’re going to own his rights and hopefully at some point he comes back and he re-joins this team. The door hasn’t closed on him.”

Perhaps Tryamkin will come back when he is older and ready to make a significant impact. Either way, his return to Russia is hardly a sign that the KHL has become a threat to the NHL.

While Datsyuk returned to Russia last year for family reasons and Dallas first-rounder Valeri Nichushkin left the team for the KHL, it’s mostly past-their-prime veterans or bubble players who are going back. When it comes to top-end talent, the NHL is still the preferred destination.

Zaitsev signed a seven-year contract with the Maple Leafs earlier this week. Radulov, who returned to the NHL last season and scored 54 points after four years in the KHL, is expected to re-sign with the Canadiens at some point this summer. And several teams have reportedly reached out to Ilya Kovalchuk about a possible return after he spent the past four years in Russia.