Blue Jackets first-round pick Andreyanov signs five-year deal in KHL
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Columbus Blue Jackets first-round pick Pyotr Andreyanov signed five-year deal contract extension with CSKA Moscow of the KHL on Thursday.
Andreyanov was the first goaltender selected in last month's draft, going to the Blue Jackets at 20th overall. The team also selected defenceman Jackson Smith at 14th overall.
The 18-year-old netminder went 23-6-6 with the CSKA Red Army Jr. team last season, posting a .942 save percentage and a 1.75 goals-against average.
“I'm not a goalie expert, but I can interview people,” Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell said last week of selecting Andreyanov. “Our goalie guys, Nick (Backstrom) and Brad Thiessen and Jimmy Viers all said, by far, they thought this was the best guy. You know, we came into the draft saying that we'd like to draft a goalie. So when we put our list together, it worked out two ways. It's kind of interesting, because he's our No. 1 goalie, but he was actually our next guy on our list, so we didn't have to debate at all.
“Every kid that we talked to down there ... we always ask them this question – if you had one player that you could take with you to your next team, (who would it be)? And 90 percent of the players said Pyotr."
The new deal keeps Andreyanov under contract in Russia through the 2029-30 season.