The Buffalo Sabres have signed defenseman Nikita Novikov to a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced Friday.
Buffalo selected Novikov during the sixth round (188th overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft. The 19-year-old spent the past two seasons playing professionally in the KHL, including a career-high 62 games this season with Dynamo Moscow.
The 6-foot-3, left-shot defenseman has played 94 career games in the KHL, fourth all-time among defensemen before the age of 20.
"The fact that he was a regular at the KHL level as a defenseman I think just speaks to how they value him and what they think of him, and we do the same way," Sabres director of player development Adam Mair said last summer, after Novikov completed his first KHL season.
"He's big, he's smart with the puck, and he has a very gritty style to his play. When you watch the playoffs now, especially in the Cup Final, you see that - defensemen who are big and mean around the net, they're hard to get through."
MEET NIKITA NOVIKOV
Novikov becomes the seventh member of the Sabres' 2021 draft class to sign an entry-level contract. That group includes second-round pick Aleksandr Kisakov, with whom Novikov played growing up in the Dynamo Moscow program. The Sabres also signed Russian forward Viktor Neuchev, a third-round pick in 2022, to his entry-level contract earlier this month.
Prior to being drafted by the Sabres, Novikov won a championship with Dynamo Moscow in Russia's junior league in 2020-21 and had five assists and a plus-9 rating in seven games to help Russia win a silver medal at the 2021 IIHF U-18 World Championship.
