Tryamkin not returning to Canucks, re-signs in Russia

May 2 2021, 5:59 pm

The book now appears to be closed for good on Nikita Tryamkin and the Vancouver Canucks.

The 6-foot-8 Russian defenceman re-signed with hometown team today, inking a two-year contract extension with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg of the KHL.

“I am glad to sign a new contract with Avtomobilist,” Tryamkin said (translated from Russian with Google Translate). “We will continue to work, fight on the ice in the ranks of our own club. The main goal is to try to win, to achieve something not only for yourself, but also for the team.”

The deal keeps Tryamkin in Russia until April 30, 2023, at which point he’ll be four months removed from his 29th birthday. That means Tryamkin has likely played his last game in a Canucks uniform, as in two years he will be considered an unrestricted free agent by the NHL.

Tryamkin’s agent Todd Diamond had been outspoken about his client’s desire to return to the NHL, but the Canucks’ precarious cap situation complicated things. The big blueliner wanted to return last year also.

Diamond told Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV that the Canucks and Tryamkin couldn’t come to an agreement on a new deal, as the sides were too far apart on a dollar figure.

“He still has the same desire to show people he can be a full-time, successful player in the NHL,” Diamond told Dhaliwal and Don Taylor show on CHEK TV April 20.

Diamond said that he believed Tryamkin could be a top-four defenceman at the NHL level, though certainly that remains to be seen and some scouts are skeptical.

“It’s a different person from the guy who left Vancouver four years ago,” said Diamond. “He’s made a commitment to being in shape, to being the best pro he can be, to having a good diet. He’s slimmed down significantly since then. He really is all-in.”

It looks like Tryamkin will be all-in for Yekaterinburg instead.

Drafted by the Canucks in the third-round in 2014, Tryamkin played 79 games for Vancouver before returning to Russia in 2017. Tryamkin signed a one-year extension with his KHL team last year, buying time for a potential return next season, but clearly that didn’t pan out.

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