MOSCOW, June 13 (R-Sport) - The NHL’s Nashville Predators may face a struggle to retain wing Sergei Kostitsyn after a source at KHL team Avangard Omsk told R-Sport on Thursday the Russians want him back.
Kostitsyn, 26, spent the NHL lockout at Avangard, where he scored 28 points in 27 games, in stark contrast to a largely disappointing season in Nashville once the NHL resumed, with 15 points from 46 games.
The Avangard source said the Siberian team wanted to sign Kostitsyn to revive his combination on the same line as Alexander Frolov and Dmitry Semin, a prolific partnership during the lockout.
Kostitsyn is under contract at Nashville until the end of the next season, but the Predators have had problems with Russian teams poaching their players before. In 2008, Alexander Radulov left Nashville with a year to go on his contract to sign for Salavat Yulaev Ufa.
Nashville failed to make the playoffs in 2012-13, while Avangard lost in the KHL Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
