Red Wings restricted free agent forward Andreas Athanasiou is weighing a one-year offer from the KHL, his agent Darren Ferris confirmed with The Athletic.

“I have received a considerable offer that is significant,” Ferris wrote in a text.

Athanasiou and the Red Wings have had ongoing contract talks over the summer after Detroit made him a qualifying offer, but the two sides haven’t been able to agree to terms. As a Group 2 restricted free agent without arbitration rights, Athanasiou doesn’t have a ton of leverage with the Red Wings at this point in his career, aside from an offer sheet. Offer sheets are rare in the NHL for a few reasons: partially because clubs are reluctant to submit an offer sheet for fear of retaliation down the road but mostly because offer sheets are usually matched. If a KHL offer is something Athanasiou is seriously considering, it gives him leverage he wouldn’t otherwise have, which could be part of the motivation behind the conversations with a Russian team in the first place.

How much leverage this creates ultimately depends on how serious a threat the Red Wings believe the KHL offer is for Athanasiou. Even if he leaves, they would retain his rights when he’s ready to return to the NHL and he’d return as a RFA who still wouldn’t have arbitration rights. Players typically like to keep the clock moving on their service time towards unrestricted free agency.

The 23-year-old Ontario native has shown a willingness to rock the boat at other times in his career. While playing in the OHL as a teenager, he requested a trade out of London that was ultimately granted when he was shipped to the Barrie Colts in 2012. At the time, the trade request was believed to be because of a lack of icetime.

The possibility of a deal in the KHL was first reported by Rick Dhaliwal, a news anchor at 1130 Sports in Vancouver.