{"id":74215,"date":"2020-05-04T10:57:44","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T14:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=74215"},"modified":"2020-05-04T22:54:21","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T02:54:21","slug":"san-jose-sharks-sign-khl-goaltender-alexei-melnichuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/05\/04\/san-jose-sharks-sign-khl-goaltender-alexei-melnichuk\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks Sign KHL Goaltender Alexei Melnichuk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/sharks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Jose Sharks<\/a> have signed free agent, Russian goaltender, <strong>Alexei Melnichuk<\/strong>, to a two-year, entry-level contract. Melnichuk has spent three seasons with SKA St Petersburg in the KHL. The deal carries him through the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It\u2019s Official: Goalie Alexei Melnichuk signs with San Jose Sharks. Last KHL season 1.68 goals against average .930 SVS %. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WeAreGoldStar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WeAreGoldStar<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SJSharks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SJSharks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Omfdm6XwkU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Omfdm6XwkU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Milstein-Hockey (@HockeyAgent1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HockeyAgent1\/status\/1257306503133802496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Alexei Melnichuk Signs with the San Jose Sharks<\/h2>\n<p>Over his three-year KHL career, Melnichuk has played 18 games and posted a 9-5-1 record with a 0.922 save percentage and 1.75 goals-against average. He went undrafted in the NHL three times despite ranking eighth among European goaltenders by Central Scouting in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Until now, the 6\u20191\u201d, 187-pound, Russian has played his entire career in his hometown, St Petersburg. He has dressed in all three tiers of Russian hockey since 2015. However, the 2019-20 season saw him properly break into the KHL for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>This year, Melnichuk was promoted to backup on an elite SKA St Petersburg team after consistent success in the VHL, Russia&#8217;s second-tier. In 16 KHL games in 2019-20, Melnichuk finished with a team-high 0.930 save percentage. He also ranked fifth in GAA (1.68) among KHL goalies with at least 14 games played.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout his VHL career, Melnichuk has been a clutch performer in the postseason. He led SKA-Neva St Petersburg deep into the playoffs for three consecutive years. Most notably, his 0.963 postseason record in 9 games in 2019 carried his side to the semi-finals. Melnichuk also featured for Team Russia in the World Junior Championships in 2018.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>The Sharks have snagged a bargain prospect at a position that they desperately needed to replenish. Starting goaltender, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesma02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Martin Jones<\/a><\/strong> probably won&#8217;t last the length of his contract in San Jose, which expires in 2024, and backup, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/dellaa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Dell <\/a>becomes an unrestricted free agent this offseason. While Melnichuk does not come NHL ready, the AHL provides the perfect platform for him to prove himself in his first year.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old follows in the footsteps of former teammates <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/koskimi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mikko Koskinen<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/shestig01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Igor Shesterkin<\/a><\/strong> and adds to the burgeoning Russian goalie contingent in North America. Melnichuk was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/sports\/goldenknights\/golden-knights-rumored-to-be-finalist-for-russian-goalie-prospect-2006799\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly courted by three other clubs<\/a>, including the Sharks&#8217; bitter Pacific Divison rivals, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/knights\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"tHV3ig2OQ5dzL5KSKhfedg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/898792042\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'tHV3ig2OQ5dzL5KSKhfedg',sig:'hkUCWKizJUPpZxQAoZNbHjfXkWIWRJUzms-Xkr76UGc=',w:'594px',h:'431px',items:'898792042',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The San Jose Sharks have signed free agent, Russian goaltender, Alexei Melnichuk, to a two-year, entry-level contract. Melnichuk has spent three seasons with SKA St Petersburg in the KHL. The deal carries him through the 2021-22 season. It\u2019s Official: Goalie Alexei Melnichuk signs with San Jose Sharks. Last KHL season 1.68 goals against average .930 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1733,"featured_media":74429,"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":[34,25],"tags":[522,4910,4035,523,3234,117],"class_list":["post-74215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sharks","tag-aaron-dell","tag-alexei-melnichuk","tag-igor-shesterkin","tag-martin-jones","tag-mikko-koskinen","tag-san-jose-sharks"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74215","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\/1733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}