Ivan Ryabkin’s status has become the latest jolt for a Chicago Wolves roster that has already taken a hit this offseason.
The Russian forward, whom the Carolina Hurricanes selected with the 62nd pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, is now the subject of a Sunday rumor that he is headed back to Dynamo Moscow in the KHL. That would mark a dramatic turn for a player the Hurricanes had just brought into their system after he signed his entry-level deal last summer.
Ryabkin’s path with the organization moved quickly. He spent the second half of the 2024-25 season with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks, then impressed enough in training camp to open the season with the Wolves. After 25 AHL games, Chicago sent him to the Charlottetown Islanders in the QMJHL, and that’s where his year really took off.
In Charlottetown, Ryabkin put up 42 points in 20 games and had a pair of five-point outings. He followed that with nine points in six playoff games before returning to the Wolves at the end of the regular season. From there, he played in all 21 of Chicago’s playoff games, scored four goals and finished with nine points as the Wolves lost to the Toronto Marlies in the Calder Cup Final.
The rumor also included a personal wrinkle: according to the same insider, Ryabkin is set to marry the daughter of Dynamo Moscow’s new general manager.
For Chicago, the timing would be rough. The Wolves have already watched Domenick Fensore and Ryan Suzuki sign with other NHL clubs, Noel Gunler head to Sweden, Noah Philp sign in Sweden and have his signing rights traded to Anaheim, and Givani Smith move on to Shanghai in the KHL. Ryabkin looked like he could be a major part of the team’s identity next season, so another departure would sting.
There is still no official word from the Hurricanes, and that matters here. One possibility is that Carolina simply loans Ryabkin to the KHL for the season, keeping the door open for a return to Chicago later on. Because of his age, the Hurricanes would still retain all three seasons of his entry-level deal.
Until the Hurricanes confirm or deny the situation, the picture remains unsettled. But if Ryabkin does end up back in Russia, it would be another frustrating loss for a Wolves forward group that has already been thinned out quite a bit. Players such as Charlie Cerrato could get their first real chance in the AHL and be asked to help fill the void.
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How One Outsider Crashed The Hurricanes Stanley Cup Celebration
Andrew Metelitz is the kind of fan story that tends to live forever because it sounds like it should not have worked. A lifelong New York Islanders fan from Long Island, he made his way to the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas and somehow found himself inside the Carolina Hurricanes' on-ice celebration, blending in long enough to take photos and spend time around the players, coaches and families who were supposed to be the only ones there.
Metelitz's run did not end when the ice was cleared, either. He later worked his way into the teams parade and after party, staying close enough to the champions to keep celebrating with them in the hours after the trophy was won. For a visiting fan with no business being in the middle of it all, it was the kind of accidental access that turns a championship night into a story people will be talking about long after the confetti is gone. [Read more 🡒]