Former Canuck Nikolay Goldobin reaches major milestone in the KHL

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Cooper Godin
October 20, 2024 (10:06)

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Former Vancouver Canucks forward Nikolay Goldobin has reached a big milestone in the KHL recently.

After the 2019-20 season, the Vancouver Canucks made the decision not to issue a qualifying offer to Russian forward Nikolay Goldobin, which made him an unrestricted free agent. Instead of waiting around for NHL offers to come in, Goldobin signed in the KHL with CSKA Moscow.

Since returning to Russia, Goldobin has played for CSKA Moscow, Metalurg Magnitogorsk and now, Spartak Moscow, the latter of whom he joined ahead of the 2023-24 season.

Joining Spartak Moscow was likely the best move Nikolay Goldobin has made in his career so far. Last season, he put up 78 points (37 goals, 41 assists) in 67 games and is already off to a hot start this season, registering ten points in 16 games.

Recently, Goldobin reached a big milestone in his career and it was highlighted in a social media post by Spartak Moscow and the KHL. Goldobin, who's in his fifth season in the league, has now scored 100 goals in the KHL.

Note: the following is translated from Russian.

"🎯Congratulations to Nikolai Goldobin, who «knocked out» platinum in Khabarovsk: 100 goals is a worthy achievement."

Goldobin joined the Vancouver Canucks organization through a trade with the San Jose Sharks in March 2017 that saw forward Jannik Hansen go to the Northern California club. In 114 games for the Vancouver Canucks between the 2016-17 and 2019-20 seasons, Goldobin registered 44 points (18 goals, 26 assists), 24 penalty minutes and was a minus-23.

The Moscow native is under contract with Spartak until the end of the 2025-26 season and if he's able to continue his strong play in the Kontinental Hockey League, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him return to North America and potentially sign in the NHL. But we'll have to wait and see how the next couple of seasons go.