What was first rumored now appears to be official. Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Vasily Ponomarev is heading back to Russia, signing a deal with the KHL for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Reports surfaced a few days ago that Ponomarev might head back to his homeland after a deal in the KHL saw Spartak trade his KHL rights to Avangard. On Friday, it was reported that the Penguins and general manager Kyle Dubas do not believe Ponomarev will be in North America next year.

“My understanding is yes (he will leave),” Dubas said, per Pittsburgh Hockey Now. “He switched agents once or twice (recently), and he’s negotiating his own deal over there. He’s young, we’ll continue watching him over there. We weren’t going to promise him anything. He got a lot of opportunities with us, and he was injured for part of the other times when we would have called him up. I’ll just keep watching him. It is what it is. That’s the business.”

Ponomarev was one of the many parts involved in the the Jake Guentzel to Carolina back in March of 2024. The forward was one of three prospects, along with Ville Koivunen and Cruz Lucius, and five total assets the Penguins received from the Hurricanes.

At the time of the deal, Ponomarev was seen as the most NHL-ready prospect in the trade. Koivunen, who is a year younger, was still playing with Kärpät of the Finnish league at the time, and Lucius is still playing college hockey at Arizona State University.

Ponomarev, meanwhile, had already made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes earlier that season, and had notched a goal and an assist in two games with Carolina.

The plan was for Ponomarev to get a run of NHL games with the Penguins down the stretch in 2023-24, but an injury suffered with Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate ended his season before he could get that opportunity.

In 2024-25, Ponomarev played 55 games in the AHL, scoring 15 goals and 26 assists.

He was called up on three different occasions, getting very brief chances in the NHL roster. Ponomarev made his Penguins debut on November 16th, playing 11 shifts and totaling 8:40 on the night. He registered three shots on goal and a takeaway on that.

He played three games on that call-up and one more game in early February, averaging just about nine minutes a night and being used sparingly under head coach Mike Sullivan.

In April, as the season was coming to a close and the Penguins were well out of the race, the youth movement slowly started to take over. Along with Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty, Ponomarev got another brief look.

In three April games, he got a bump in ice time, averaging a hair over 11 minutes a night and getting some reps at a center. In his last game of the season, on April 17th, Ponomarev won six of eight faceoffs and totaled a season-high 16 shifts.

Overall though, he went pointless in seven games. Now, at age 23, his entry level contract he signed with Carolina is coming to an end, and with no apparent assurances of an NHL job next season, Ponomarev is making the big career choice to go back to Russia.

The departure was somewhat sudden and to me, is a missed opportunity for both sides.

For the Penguins, they will now miss a chance to see more of one of their more interesting prospects.

Even as Dubas starts to restock the barren prospect pool and draft pick cupboard in Pittsburgh, the team does not have a ton of actual prospects that are pushing for NHL jobs right now. Koivunen projects to take on a full-time role next season, and so does McGroarty.

If all goes well, both of those players will blossom into middle-six forwards in the NHL, or maybe true top-six guys if the Penguins get lucky.

The Penguins didn’t really have a prospect like Ponomarev, who is good at a lot of things but isn’t necessarily a standout at any particular skill or trait. Ponomarev, for my money, pans out to a bottom-six forward in the NHL.

If he developed, he could have carved himself out a third or fourth-line role for the foreseeable future with the Penguins. This upcoming season seems like a perfect time to plug in a player like Ponomarev in one of those spots.

In a season where the Penguins, by all accounts so far, aren’t going to try to be super competitive, Pittsburgh could have plugged in a young checking forward like Ponomarev and given him a legit chance to establish himself in the NHL.

But honestly, this seems like more of a missed opportunity for Ponomarev.

I get it, he wasn’t guaranteed anything by Dubas, and that’s probably not what any player wants to hear.

But in my view, there was never a better chance for a player like Ponomarev. The Moscow native was not unique in having his path to the NHL obstructed by depth players and veterans occupying spots on the NHL roster.

Noel Acciari played 79 games last season. Matt Nieto played 31 before being waived in February. They combined for 15 points. There was certainly some cardio merchants on the Penguins’ roster last season.

But as the Penguins turn the page and further embrace this next chapter, there are some real chances at NHL jobs next year for players like him.

There’s also a new head coach.

One of Sullivan’s most criticized perceived tendencies was to frequently play veterans above young players. There was an odd amount of discourse about whether that criticism was valid, or even true.

Personally, I believed it was plenty accurate, and valid to mention for a team that was never really in the running for a postseason spot. But I’m not really here to argue about that, because he’s off in New York now.

What I am here to say is that the Penguins now have a coach that has a track record of developing young talent. Dubas praised Dan Muse’s ability to help get the most out of young rosters when he announced him as the new head coach.

Not only is Muse here to help guide the Penguins through this transition and develop prospects, he’s also just a new set of eyes.

Maybe Ponomarev felt that Sullivan didn’t like him. Maybe Sullivan wasn’t a fan of him. I don’t know, that’s complete speculation.

But Muse literally can’t have favorites yet, because none of these players have played for him in Pittsburgh yet. If there was a chance for Ponomarev to really put his name out there and get some traction here, it started with training camp.

Instead, Ponomarev will be in the KHL at that time.

There’s always the possibility that he comes back. The Penguins will still hold his NHL rights, and Dubas said that he will keep a close eye on him in the KHL.

And maybe if Ponomarev really did have long odds to make the NHL team, he’ll be a lot happier playing back at home. But right now, this does feel like a missed opportunity for everyone involved. This was Ponomarev’s best NHL chance yet.