{"id":702282,"date":"2026-05-29T20:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/702282\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:16:11","slug":"edmonton-oilers-wont-be-signing-top-russian-prospect-after-all-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/702282\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers won&#8217;t be signing top Russian prospect after all | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Edmonton Oilers will need to begin looking elsewhere for an inexpensive bottom-six forward next season.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, it was reported that the Oilers were <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/edmonton\/edmonton-oilers-may-sign-top-russian-prospect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">likely to sign Russian prospect Maxim Berezkin<\/a>, whom they selected in the fifth round of the 2020 draft. The 24-year-old has spent the past six seasons playing with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL. He and his teammates are fresh off their second-straight league championship.<\/p>\n<p>Oilers fans were quite excited about the possibility of finally landing Berezkin, as he\u2019s been a very intriguing prospect for several years. Unfortunately, he won\u2019t be suiting up in Edmonton anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>As per Daria Tuboltseva of Sportsru, Berezkin has signed a two-year extension with Lokomotiv.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Per source, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EdmontonOilers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@EdmontonOilers<\/a>  prospect Maxim Berezkin has changed his mind after winning a second straight Gagarin Cup and has decided to stay in the KHL for two more years, signing an extension with Lokomotiv.<\/p>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Berezkin is already 24. At some point,\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Daria Tuboltseva (@DariaTuboltseva) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DariaTuboltseva\/status\/2060371998484668871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">May 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While an upsetting decision for Oilers fans, it makes plenty of sense from Berezkin\u2019s perspective. Not only will he presumably make more money, but he also gets to stay with a very good team where he\u2019s clearly comfortable. On top of that, his numbers declined this season.<\/p>\n<p>After recording career highs with 15 goals and 42 points in 2024-25, Berezkin managed just seven goals and 32 points in 64 games this season. It\u2019s possible that the decline in offence had him feeling as though he isn\u2019t NHL-ready at this time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>There was also no guarantee as to whether or not the Oilers view him as being NHL-ready. It sometimes takes European players some time to adapt to the North American game, which could have resulted in Berezkin being forced to spend some time in the AHL.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of why the decision was made, Berezkin will not be suiting up for the Oilers anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>You might also like:<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/edmonton\/edmonton-oilers-gm-update-bouchard-scary-injury\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Edmonton Oilers GM gives update on Bouchard after scary injury<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers will need to begin looking elsewhere for an inexpensive bottom-six forward next season. Last week,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-702282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}