Kirill Petrov: “I will finish the season in Russia, come to America next year”

Kirill Petrov: “I will finish the season in Russia, come to America next year” (Photo © Jana Chytilova/NHLI)

Kirill Petrov is likely to join the New York Islanders of the NHL at the end of this season. His KHL team, Ak Bars Kazan, isn’t giving him ice time as he was demoted down to the Russian High League.

“I wasn’t getting ice time and I was going to leave for the second half of the season,” Petrov said through a translator to The Hockey News. “But management told me after the World (Junior) Championship I will get ice time. I will finish the season in Russia and maybe come to North America next year.”

Kirill Petrov was a big part of this year’s WJC Team Russia. In the six games of the tournament he scored four points an six assists. He also got the C on the chest after head coach Vladimir Plyuschev decided to strip Nikita Filatov of the captaincy, after the surprising defeat against Team Switzerland in the quarterfinals.

“It means I must be a leader on and off the ice,” Petrov said of the captaincy to The Hockey News. “It was the coach’s decision, so I took it.”