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Nikita Gusev has been a successful hockey player for a number of years. 

Though he has spent a majority of his playing days in the Kontinental Hockey League, Gusev did spend some time in North America, looking to take his game to the next level in the National Hockey League. 

And for a time, he did. Upon arrival in New Jersey, Gusev had broken out and was among the point leaders for the Devils. 

But, almost as quickly as he had burst onto the scene, he would disappear. 

Gusev’s NHL presence actually started quite a while ago. A seventh round draft choice back in 2012, the Tampa Bay Lightning were the holders of his NHL rights for years. 

Gusev, at the time he was drafted, was already a rising star overseas. Although his numbers weren’t quite star-level yet over in Russia, the skill was, as evident by his future years in the KHL. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning, however, did not show much interest in ever bringing Gusev over, holding onto his rights but never signing him. And to be fair, Gusev had never pressed super hard to try and come to the NHL right away. Eventually, Tampa moved on from him, as he was part of a package sent to the Vegas Golden Knights during the Vegas Expansion Draft in agreement for the Golden Knights to select Jason Garrison and his $4.6 million cap hit from Tampa Bay. 

At this point, Gusev was a full on star in the KHL. Playing with SKA St. Petersburg, Gusev had tallied 35 points in 33 games for the club in 2015-16, and 71 points in 57 games in 2016-17. 

He proved himself as a playoff performer too, adding a total of 39 points in 33 playoff games during SKA St. Petersburg’s playoff runs those two seasons, the second of which ended in a Gagarin Cup victory. 

But he would still be years away from his NHL debut. 

Gusev continued his growth as one of the KHL’s best players, winning the league’s Golden Stick, or MVP award during the 2017-18 season. The Moscow native had tallied 62 points in 54 games for SKA. 

He also appeared in the 2018 Winter Olympics, playing for the Olympic Athletes from Russia (remember that name?), contributing 12 points in 6 games to help the OAR win Gold in Pyeongchang, South Korea. His heroic performance included 2 goals in the Gold Medal game, including scoring with under a minute to go to force the game into overtime. He also assisted on the game-winner. 

For his efforts, Gusev was named the “Best Forward” in those Olympics. 

He followed up his KHL MVP campaign a season later by putting up some of the best totals of his KHL career. Gusev recorded 82 points, including 65 assists, in 62 games. In addition to that, he tallied 19 points in 18 postseason games. 

His 65 assists set a KHL record for most assists in a single season, beating Alexander Radulov’s 60. 

His 82 points that season also made Gusev the owner of 3 of the KHL’s 37 highest scoring seasons at the time. 

The Golden Knights were enticed by his talent, and his playmaking ability, and opted to sign him during their playoff run in 2019. At the time of his signing, Gusev’s 332 points were 10th all time in the KHL. 

Gusev’s contract was a one-year, entry level deal signed on April 14, 2019, just as the Golden Knights had taken a 2-1 series lead over the San Jose Sharks in the first round. 

You may remember this was the year where Vegas had blown a 3-1 series lead, and lost in overtime in Game 7, ending their playoff run much earlier then they would have hoped. 

Gusev did not make an appearance in any of Vegas’ remaining playoff games. Had the Golden Knights advanced further, it’s unknown if Gusev would have seen any playoff action. 

His contract with Vegas expired in the ensuing offseason, and after the Golden Knights were unable to agree to terms for a long-term extension, the team decided to trade his rights. 

Vegas traded Gusev to the rebuilding New Jersey Devils for a third round pick in 2020 and a second round pick in 2021. 

Immediately after the trade, the Devils agreed to a two-year deal with Gusev that paid him $9 million in total. 

The Gusev trade was one of many moves the Devils made that offseason, a summer that included bringing in defenseman PK Subban and center Jack Hughes, the first overall pick from the 2019 NHL Draft. 

Gusev made his NHL debut on October 4, 2019, scoring the first goal of the Devils’ 2019-20 season and of his NHL career.

Unfortunately for him, New Jersey had blown a 4-0 lead in that game and ultimately lost in the shootout. 

Gusev would struggle in the following games however, and two months into the season, his NHL debut was looking disappointing. 

He was not alone, however, as the Devils as a team had been underwhelming as a whole. New Jersey’s front office decided they needed a change, coming in the form of a new head coach. The Devils fired John Hynes and promoted assistant coach Alain Nasreddine to the interim role. 

And all of the sudden, the Goose was loose!

Gusev had experienced a resurgence in his performance, and led the Devils with 32 points in 44 games after the December 3 coaching change. 

Nasserdine had given Gusev more freedom offensively, as well as pairing him with more defensively minded forwards, allowing Gusev to take more risks and focus on the offensive side of the game. 

His game was hot and cold, filled with streaks of dominance and some no-shows, but Gusev had looked a lot more like the KHL Gusev that folks in the NHL were hearing about. 

The league’s season, and by extension Gusev’s, had come to an abrupt halt when the NHL paused, and eventually canceled the remainder of the season due to Covid-19 concerns.

In his final game of the season, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, he scored a goal in New Jersey’s 5-2 loss. 

In total, Gusev finished his first NHL season at age 27 with 13 goals and 31 assists for 44 points. He led the team in assists and finished just behind Kyle Palmieri in points. 

The Devils had a hard time getting offense, and as a result finished the shortened season at 28-29-12, last place in the Metropolitan Division. 

Nasserdine did remain a part of the Devils staff, but was not back as head coach for the following season. New Jersey opted to return him to his assistant coach role as they brought in Lindy Ruff to be the team’s new head coach. 

Going into the next season, which had been shortened to 56 games, the Devils still had a decent amount of time before their rebuild would pay off. The 2020-21 season was yet another challenging one as the Devils would go 19-30-7 on the year. 

Gusev could not replicate the success he experienced the season before, and New Jersey did not show a ton of patience for the winger who was counting for $4.5 million against the cap still. 

Gusev recorded just 5 points in 20 games for the Devils in 2020-21, and on April 1st, the team placed him on waivers. He went unclaimed, likely due to his contract, and after New Jersey could not find a trade partner, the team placed him on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract. 

At the time Gusev’s contract was terminated, he had been a healthy scratch for the team’s previous 10 games.

The Devils continued to give their young players and up and coming core more ice time, leaving Gusev an odd man out if he couldn’t produce. And he hadn’t been. During his last 5 games as a Devil, he recorded no points. 

While no longer receiving the kind of lucrative offers that the Devils had offered him, several NHL teams still showed interest in Gusev. He ultimately signed with the Florida Panthers just two days later, agreeing to a one-year, $1 million deal that took him to the end of the season with Florida. 

Gusev was joining a team that was poised to give him a big opportunity. The Panthers had brought Gusev in because of his offensive prowess, and with Carter Verhaeghe out week-to-week at the time of the deal, Gusev was set to see an increase in ice time. 

The immediate results were good. Gusev recorded 3 assists in his first 5 games as a Panther, and appeared in 11 of Florida’s final 13 games. But he wasn’t scoring, despite chances in Florida’s top six. He ended the season with just 2 goals and 3 assists in 11 games for the Panthers. 

Florida was a team that got hot at the right time, winning 10 of their final 13 down the stretch, including ending the season on a 6 game win streak. They finished second in the Central Division (remember, this is the year with the wonky divisions), setting them up for a first round matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Florida had opted to keep Gusev out of the lineup during the first round, as the Panthers were eliminated by Tampa Bay, the eventual Stanley Cup winners, in six games. 

Gusev found himself an unrestricted free agent after the season, and after his short-lived run in Florida, he struggled to find an offer in the NHL. 

Towards the end of the season, he signed a professional try-out with the Toronto Maple Leafs, hoping to revive his NHL career. He battled fellow PTO player Josh Ho-Sang, who appeared to have a slight edge over Gusev during the preseason. 

In the end, Toronto would release Gusev from his PTO, while signing Ho-Sang to an AHL contract. 

And that was it. Gusev’s time in the NHL was suddenly over. 

After failing to secure a contract in Toronto, his fate in the NHL was pretty much sealed. Besides, there was no point in sticking around. A big money offer was not coming, and even if he could find another deal in the NHL, it likely would not have come with an exceptional amount of ice time or opportunity. There was no point in staying in North America when all of those things he could find back home in Russia. 

Shortly after his Maple Leafs’ release, Gusev signed a contract in the KHL, reuniting with SKA St. Petersburg. 

His very short run in the NHL is fascinating. He went from a promising offensive weapon who was a team leader in points in 2020, to out of the league entirely less than two years later. 

His NHL career ended with 54 points in 97 games, and no postseason action despite being on two teams who made the playoffs while he was there. 

In his first season back in the KHL, Gusev picked up right where he left off. He tallied 35 points in 31 games for SKA St. Petersburg, and was a point-per-game in 16 postseason games. 

This most recent season, he posted 49 points, including 23 goals, his highest KHL goal total since 2016-17. He added 12 points in 13 playoff games as he and SKA won the Gagarin Cup.