MOSCOW, April 25 (R-Sport) – Russian hockey forward Anton Zlobin has signed a three-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the NHL team announced on its website.
The 20-year-old spent last season with the Val-d'Or Foreurs in the Quebec junior hockey league, scoring 91 points in the 61 games of the regular season and adding 10 more in the playoffs, where his team reached the quarterfinals.
“The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward Anton Zlobin, to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal begins with the 2013-14 season and runs through the 2015-16 campaign,” the NHL statement said.
Zlobin will join Evgeni Malkin, from Magnitogorsk, Russia, who is the team's alternate captain, and who represented Russia in the 2010 Winter Olympics, chalking up an impressive scoring record.
Zlobin was born and raised in Moscow and graduated from the Spartak Moscow academy before moving to North America in 2010 to join Shawinigan Cataractes for two years.
He attracted the attention of the scouts at the World U17 Hockey Challenge in Canada in 2010, where he notched up 10 points in six games for Russia.
Zlobin was later picked up by the Penguins in the sixth round of 2012 draft.
Updated, clarifying headline, adding detail on Malkin's record
