Vancouver, B.C. \u2013 Vancouver Canucks General Manager Ryan Johnson announced today that the club has agreed to terms with forward Ilya Safonov on a one-year, two-way contract for the 2026.27 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIlya had a solid year in Russia and a strong playoff,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWe like his size and player profile, and he will be given every opportunity to compete for a spot at training camp.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Safonov, 25, appeared in 68 games with Ak Bars Kazan of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) this season, posting 33 points (16-17-33), 43 penalty minutes, and a +18 plus\/minus rating. His 16 goals ranked sixth on Ak Bars, while his +18 plus\/minus rating placed him fourth. He also skated in 20 postseason contests, registering nine points (2-7-9) and 12 penalty minutes, helping the team advance to the Gagarin Cup Final.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 6\u20194\u201d, 205lbs forward has appeared in 331 career KHL games, all with Ak Bars Kazan, recording 128 points (65-63-128), 129 penalty minutes, and a +68 plus\/minus rating. He has also skated in 79 career playoff games, scoring 26 points (10-16-26), 35 penalty minutes, and a +22 plus\/minus rating.<\/p>\n
Born in Moscow, RUS, Safonov has represented his country internationally on numerous occasions, including the 2017 Under-17 Hockey Challenge and the 2021 World Junior Hockey Championships.<\/p>\n
Safonov was originally selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the sixth round, 172nd overall, in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vancouver, B.C. \u2013 Vancouver Canucks General Manager Ryan Johnson announced today that the club has agreed to terms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-711168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711168","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=711168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}