{"id":10542,"date":"2017-07-06T10:06:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T14:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=10542"},"modified":"2017-07-07T08:58:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T12:58:36","slug":"nikita-nesterov-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/07\/06\/nikita-nesterov-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikita Nesterov Headed Back to the KHL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to his agent, defenceman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nesteni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikita Nesterov<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0has opted to return to the KHL. The defencemen became an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, following the Montreal Canadiens deciding not to give him a qualifying offer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Agent Dan Milstein says defenseman Nikita Nesterov, who had 2 NHL possibilities, will sign back home in the KHL.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SWhyno\/status\/882962583531245569\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nikita Nesterov has decided to continue his hockey career back home. Will sign with one of the clubs in the KHL.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dan Milstein (@HockeyAgent1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HockeyAgent1\/status\/882962375703498752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nikita Nesterov and Mikhail Grigorenko signed 3-year deals with CSKA of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/KHL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#KHL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Habs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Habs<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Avs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Avs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IgorEronko\/status\/883256699196502017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Nikita Nesterov Headed Back to the KHL<\/h2>\n<p>Nesterov <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/2016\/09\/26\/tampa-bay-lightning-resign\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signed<\/a> a one-year, $725,000 contract with the <strong>Tampa Bay Lightning<\/strong>\u00a0in late September after hitting many career highs in 2015-2016. He appeared in 35 games averaging just over 16 minutes of ice time per game on the bottom pairing. He was later\u00a0traded to the Canadiens <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/2017\/01\/26\/montreal-canadiens-acquire-nikita-nesterov-lightning\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">late January<\/a>\u00a0for defenceman\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/racinjo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Racine<\/a><\/strong> and a 6th round pick in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old was suppose to add more depth to the defensive core, but once the Canadiens <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2017\/02\/14\/montreal-canadiens-fire-michel-therrien-hire-claude-julien\/\" target=\"_self\">fired<\/a> <strong>Michel Therrien<\/strong>, and hired <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/juliecl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Claude Julien<\/a><\/strong>, Nesterov was a consistent healthy scratch. In fact, the defenseman played in just seven of the last 24 regular season contests. He also participated in only\u00a0two of the six playoff games against\u00a0the New York Rangers in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian\u00a0was originally selected in the fifth round (148th overall) in the 2011 NHL Draft. He&#8217;s an\u00a0offensive defencemen, who put up an impressive 54 Corsi-for percentage during his time with Tampa Bay and Montreal. However, those minutes were heavily sheltered for zone starts and opposition.<\/p>\n<p>In the limited time this season, Nesterov hit career highs in many offensive categories.\u00a0He piled up four goals, 13 assists and 17 points.\u00a0The young defenseman continues to get better every year, but hasn&#8217;t experienced a true opportunity to display his talents in his three-year career.<\/p>\n<p>Nesterov has taken part in 119 career games, stacking up only 28 points while averaging 15:30 minutes per game. The Russian has a career Corsi-for percentage of 52.2 and a Fenwick-for percentage of 50.2.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/641154034\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/641154034?et=itVm72gMTQNXZ4303eG3AA&amp;tld=ca&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=b8PHfUHNAVlYzM0ZwRAH4s-sK-5nDMyD77xWDQWyB_E=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to his agent, defenceman Nikita Nesterov\u00a0has opted to return to the KHL. The defencemen became an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, following the Montreal Canadiens deciding not to give him a qualifying offer. Agent Dan Milstein says defenseman Nikita Nesterov, who had 2 NHL possibilities, will sign back home in the KHL. \u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1883,"featured_media":10590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,2003],"tags":[152,38,582,42],"class_list":["post-10542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-khl","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-nikita-nesterov","tag-tampa-bay-lightning"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}