The Minnesota Wild are making a low-cost bet on Maxim Shabanov, and it’s the kind of move that makes sense if you’re looking for upside without much downside. Earlier this week, the Wild signed the Russian forward to a one-year, $1.6 million deal after he spent four seasons in the KHL and then played his first NHL season with the New York Islanders last year.
Michael Russo of The Athletic reported that Minnesota is hoping Shabanov can settle into a top-nine forward role next season. On paper, that’s a pretty ambitious ask. But the contract is modest, and the payoff could be real if Shabanov’s offensive game translates more cleanly in a bigger role.
At 5-foot-9 and 167 pounds, Shabanov looks the part of a skilled top-six forward. The question is whether his first NHL season showed enough to believe he can become more than a depth scorer. In 44 games with the Islanders, he put up 5 goals and 18 points, a .409 points-per-game pace that projects to 34 points over an 82-game season.
Still, there were some encouraging signs buried in those numbers. Per Moneypuck, Shabanov’s 1.3 assists per 60 minutes ranked fourth among Islanders forwards, and 8 of his 13 assists were primary assists. He also finished with a 51.7% on-ice goals percentage, which was seventh among Islanders forwards.
His usage in New York was fairly limited. According to HockeyReference, Shabanov averaged 13:41 of ice time per night, 11th among Islanders forwards, and he saw 1:32 of power-play time per game, which ranked tenth on the team.
The stronger case for optimism comes from what he did before arriving in the NHL. In his final KHL season in 2024-2025, Shabanov scored 23 goals and 67 points in 65 games for Chelyabinsk Traktor, a 1.03 points-per-game clip at age 24.
He added another 10 goals and 20 points in 21 playoff games that season. Over three full KHL seasons, he totaled 66 goals and 148 points in 196 games.
That kind of production is why the Wild are willing to take the swing. Shabanov’s KHL profile lines up with a couple of former KHL forwards who came to the NHL around the same age and became useful top-nine players.
Andrei Kuzmenko is one example. In his final KHL season at age 25 in 2021-2022, Kuzmenko had 20 goals and 53 points in 45 games for SKA St.
Petersburg, a 1.18 points-per-game mark. He later had a breakout rookie season with the Vancouver Canucks and has since dealt with injuries, but he’s still been a productive NHL player when healthy.
Across his career, Kuzmenko has averaged .67 points per game in 271 NHL games.
Ilya Mikheyev is the other comparison. At 24, he scored 23 goals and 45 points in 62 games for Avangard Omsk in 2018-2019, which came out to .73 points per game.
His KHL resume wasn’t as strong as Shabanov’s or Kuzmenko’s, but he has still built a solid NHL career. Mikheyev’s best NHL season came last year with the Chicago Blackhawks, when he scored 18 goals and 36 points in 77 games.
He has 427 NHL games under his belt and has averaged .47 points per game.
That’s the case for Minnesota’s gamble: the NHL sample is modest, but the KHL track record says there may be more offense waiting to come out. If the Wild give Shabanov time on the power play and a shot in a top-six role, there’s reason to think his game could open up even more.
With flashes of skill like this, it’s hard not to dream about Shabanov’s offensive potential.
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