{"id":814244,"date":"2026-07-21T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814244\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T11:20:12","slug":"zakhar-bardakov-eyeing-an-eventual-nhl-return-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814244\/","title":{"rendered":"Zakhar Bardakov Eyeing An Eventual NHL Return \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKA forward Zakhar Bardakov<\/a> said in an interview with Sport Express<\/a> that\u00a0he\u2019s far from done with the NHL, even after a swift return to the KHL following his rookie season in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Bardakov\u2019s exit wasn\u2019t a case of giving up. His entry-level deal with the Avalanche included a clause allowing him to head back to the KHL if he was assigned to the AHL rather than kept on Colorado\u2019s NHL roster, a provision built in largely because of his age and experience level rather than a typical prospect track, as reported by Ryan O\u2019Hara<\/a> with The Hockey News. When the Avalanche moved him to their AHL affiliate, that clause kicked in, giving him a way out of the minors instead of grinding through a development assignment. Colorado still retains his rights via a qualifying offer, and the short-term nature of his new SKA deal could even allow a return to the Avalanche as soon as next season if he impresses in Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 100% want to return there,\u201d Bardakov said. \u201cNow I understand how everything works. That league pushes you to get better every single day, you work on yourself, and you realize you\u2019re actually a solid player. That\u2019s why the contract with SKA is only for one year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been candid about the calculation behind the move, framing this KHL stint as a bridge rather than a retreat. \u201cI\u2019ll play here for now, and in a year, maybe I\u2019ll head back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His NHL debut season didn\u2019t produce eye-popping numbers, with just ten points in 60 games, but Bardakov came away convinced the level of competition is exactly what he needs to keep developing. For now, that means proving himself again in the KHL, with his NHL rights and his sights still very much fixed on Colorado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SKA forward Zakhar Bardakov said in an interview with Sport Express that\u00a0he\u2019s far from done with the NHL,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,7522,981,575,85,368792],"class_list":["post-814244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-khl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-zakhar-bardakov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}