The Prince George Cougars have lost one of their most talented players.
The Western Hockey League team announced Thursday that 18-year-old forward Nikita Popugaev has left the team for personal reasons and will return to his home in Moscow, Russia.
Popugaev, acquired in a trade in January from the Moose Jaw Warriors, was drafted in June by the New Jersey Devils in the fourth round of the NHL draft.
“I don’t know the personal reasons but he wants to go home, and I can’t keep an 18-year-old boy sitting here in Prince George and not grant his wishes,” said Cougars general manager Todd Harkins. “You can’t stop him from moving on and if it’s the KHL he wants to go to I can’t stop him from that either.”
Harkins said he first learned Popugaev was contemplating leaving the team on the weekend, while he was scouting a bantam tournament in Regina while the Cougars were playing on the road in Alberta.
On Monday, after talking to Popugaev, Harkins put the word out to other WHL teams to gauge their interest on a possible trade to acquire his services. But after Harkins consulted with him and his family, Popugaev decided it would be better for him to return to Russia.
Harkins said Popugaev did not ask to be traded.
“I had some options and he just said he wanted to go home,” said Harkins. “There were other teams that had interest but I hadn’t come to a conclusion on a trade. I knew he wasn’t happy yesterday and I pursued some options and presented it to him and he just said, ‘Thanks for looking around but I’m going home.’
“We feel he’s an asset if he wanted to play somewhere else but I don’t think it’s anything particular with our league or Prince George. I don’t know if it’s family or a girlfriend or what. He said that we treated him really well and he enjoyed it here but it was his parents’ wishes as well.”
Harkins confirmed Popugaev had an offer over the summer to join a Kontinental Hockey League team near Moscow, where Popugaev lives with his family, but decided instead to return to the Cougars.
“That’s the unfortunate thing, when you have European players who are talented, they have options in Europe,” said Harkins. “It’s hard to find that tweener European player who’s not good enough to play in the KHL but is good enough to help a team in the Western Hockey League. It’s a fine line and the agents have a lot of influence on the whole CHL import draft. It’s a difficult situation for all teams in the CHL trying to find those diamond-in-the-rough European players who will develop here.”
Popugaev attended the Devils’ rookie camp and after returning to the Cougars for the start of the WHL season was playing left wing on a line with Brogan O’Brien and Ethan O’Rourke. He also drew regular duty on the top power-play unit playing the left point.
The 1998-born Popugaev turns 19 on Nov. 20. In 44 regular-season games with the Cougars over two seasons he collected nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points. In 13 games this season he had two goals and five assists for seven points. His minus-13 plus/minus rating ranked as the worst on the team.
To get Popugaev, the Cougars traded 1998-born Russian forward Yan Khomenko, 1998-born centre Justin Almeida, the Cougars second-round pick in the 2018 WHL bantam draft and a fifth-round pick in 2017.
Popugaev arrived in Prince George 40 games into last season, having scored 22 goals and 51 points for the Warriors, and struggled to regain his point-producing proficiency. Touted as a potential first-rounder in the NHL draft, his stock dropped in the second half of the season and he was still available in the fourth round where the Devils picked him 98th overall.
This season, after collecting seven points in his first eight games, he went without a point in his last five games with the Cougars.
“I think when he came here, the style of the Eastern Conference was different from the Western Conference,” said Harkins. “It was closer-checking, faster, bigger guys, harder to play on our side and I think he tried to adjust as best he could. It was important what he contributed last year to help us with a banner.
“He started off playing well at training camp and I don’t know what translated to playing the way he was playing the last week or two but obviously it was something we couldn’t control over here. He’s a big-bodied guy with skill, who can skate, and we’re going to miss that. But now it’s an opportunity for another player to step up.”
Popugaev’s departure leaves the Cougars with just one import, 18-year-old winger Vladislav Mikhalchuk, a native of Belarus. WHL teams are allowed just two imports and Harkins said the team will look around to see which players are available to potentially take Popugaev’s place. One of them could be Radovan Bondra.
“There are players who played in the league last year who could come back if they’re not under a pro contract in Europe or on waivers if somebody drops somebody, or through a trade,” said Harkins.
“I wouldn’t even rule out Bondra coming back.”
Bondra, a 20-year-old Chicago Blackhawks draft pick in 2015 who put up 32 goals and 63 points last year in a season split between the Cougars and Vancouver Giants, signed a pro contract with the Hawks this summer and was at first assigned to their AHL affiliate in Rockford. He’s now in the ECHL and has played two games for the Indy Fuel.
“We haven’t talked to Chicago but I’m sure after all this maybe they’ll contact us,” said Harkins. “But we’re not going to go and try to grab a player if he’s a pro hockey player – that’s not our style. But we will look at the option if Chicago decides they want to send him to us.”
If that happens and the Cougars bring Bondra back, he would also take up a 20-year-old slot, which would mean the Cougars would have to trade one of their three overagers – forwards O’Brien, Aaron Boyd or Jared Bethune – to make room for him.
The Cougars are now on the road, preparing for games against the Vancouver Giants tonight in Langley and a date with the Kelowna Rockets Saturday in Kelowna.
