{"id":711929,"date":"2026-06-03T09:12:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/711929\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:12:33","slug":"vancouver-canucks-sign-khl-forward-ilya-safonov-to-one-year-two-way-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/711929\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Canucks\u2019 sign KHL forward Ilya Safonov to one-year, two-way deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/vancouver-canucks\/23\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/vancouver-canucks\/23\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> signed forward Ilya Safonov to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Safonov, 25, played last season with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL last season, recording 16 goals and 33 points with 43 penalty minutes and a plus-18 rating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He added two goals and nine points in 20 postseason games, helping his team to the Gagarin Cup Final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIlya had a solid year in Russia and a strong playoff,\u201d said brand new general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/ryan-johnson\/8481564\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/ryan-johnson\/8481564\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Johnson<\/a> in a statement. \u201cWe like his size and player profile, and he will be given every opportunity to compete for a spot at training camp.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 6-foot-4 centre was originally drafted 172nd overall in the 2021 draft but never signed his entry-level contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Safanov played parts of seven seasons in the KHL, all with AK Bars Kazan, recording 65 goals and 128 points in 331 career games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Vancouver finished last season with the worst record in the NHL at 25-49-8 and are selecting third at the 2026 NHL Draft at the end of June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Canucks signed forward Ilya Safonov to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced on Tuesday. Safonov,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[712,49,48,55,83915],"class_list":["post-711929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver","tag-vancouver-canucks-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-23"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711929","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=711929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}