This is a weird one. SKA St. Petersburg acquired the rights to Red Wings goaltender Daniil Tarasov from Salavat Yulaev Ufa:
Thank you, Joe! 👏
— SKA Ice Hockey Club (@hcSKA_News) August 7, 2026
Joe Blandisi has moved to Salavat Yulaev, while SKA have received the #KHL rights to goalkeeper Daniil Tarasov.
We thank Joe for his efforts in Saint Petersburg, wishing him luck for the future!#hcSKA pic.twitter.com/KcTRDDxduw
I spotted this “transfer” on EliteProspects’ transfers page, and it’s puzzling. The KHL’s richest, most powerful team has snagged the KHL rights to a player under an NHL contract.
Why? To poach him from the NHL? Or to simply offer Tarasov a KHL “off-ramp” if he doesn’t play a whole hell of a lot in Detroit this upcoming season?
Tarasov is 27 and has bounced around a bit from Columbus to Florida and now Detroit, and I’ll grant you that making around the same $2 million that he’s earning with Detroit playing for SKA St. Petersburg might be tempting, but if Tarasov wants to play in the NHL, he’s not going to book it for the eastern end of the Baltic Sea after one year.
