- Daniil Gushchin signed a two-year deal with the KHL’s Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, his first time in Russia in nearly a decade
- San Jose drafted him 76th overall in 2020, and he piled up points in the AHL but never stuck in the NHL
- Read below for the full breakdown on Gushchin’s KHL move and his run through North America
Daniil Gushchin is heading home.
The 23-year-old forward signed a two-year contract with the KHL’s Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, the club confirmed Wednesday. It sends Gushchin back to the city where he was born and raised, and back to the Russian league for the first time in close to a decade.
Gushchin took the long way here. He left Russia as a teenager to play junior in North America, first with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks and then the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. San Jose liked the scoring touch enough to grab him in the third round, 76th overall, back in 2020.
The touch was real. In his first full pro season with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, Gushchin put up 22 goals and 45 points in 67 games. He kept rolling over the next two years, racking up 48 goals and 105 points in 112 games down in the minors.
The NHL call never really came, though. Gushchin managed just two goals and five points across 18 games with the Sharks, and his defensive game kept him buried on the depth chart.
He still flashed the finish in his brief NHL run. Watch his first career goal with San Jose:
San Jose moved on last summer, trading Gushchin to Colorado for former first-round pick Oskar Olausson. He spent 2025-26 with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles and chipped in 18 goals and 32 points in 49 games, decent numbers that still weren’t enough to earn a real look up top.
He’s not the only one making the jump back to the KHL this summer. Avtomobilist gets a proven AHL scorer who already knows the building, and Gushchin gets a fresh start in his hometown.
