Holiday Heroics From Red Wings Prospect

It was a Detroit Red Wings prospect filling the role of Santa Claus in KHL action on Christmas Day. Dmitri Buchelnikov’s goal with just 1:21 left in regulation time was snapping a scoreless tie and propeling Vityaz to a 2-0 victory over Moscow Dynamo in KHL action on December 25.

Absolute laser and game-winner by Dmitry Buchelnikov with 81 seconds left! pic.twitter.com/C9m09QThxc

— KHL (@khl_eng) December 25, 2024

Perhaps the goal will help snap Buchelnikov out of his recent scoring slump. At one stage about a month ago, he was sitting just a solitary point out of the KHL scoring lead.

Since then, the player chosen 52nd overall by Detroit in the 2022 NHL entry draft has accounted for a mere two assists over the next six games prior to his goal on Tuesday. That’s seen him slipping to 13th overall in the KHL scoring race. Buchelnikov is showing 9-22-31 totals through 35 games. The 21-year-old right-shot winger is leading Vityaz in scoring.

With 36 points from 37 games, Vityaz sits ninth in the KHL’s Western Conference. They are one place out of a playoff position.

Rough Holiday For Former Red Wings

Elsewhere, there wasn’t much holiday cheer for a couple of former Red Wings players. Lokomotiv put a 5-0 thrashing on Torpedo, the team coached by long-time Detroit star Igor Larionov.

“It’s hard to accept such a defeat, but such games happen,” Larionov told khl.ru. “In this case, the simplest solution is to forget this game as quickly as possible and move on.”

Sharing that sentiment for Torpedo forward and one-time Red Wings first-round draft pick Evgeni Svechnikov.

“After such defeats, you want to sink into the ground,” Svechnikov said. “One of the most offensive defeats both in the season and in my career. We lost everything we could. Every single battle.”

Welcome to the K, Richard Panik 🇸🇰 pic.twitter.com/D9xpr96VjA

— KHL (@khl_eng) December 25, 2024

Among the scorers for Lokomotiv was another former Red Wings forward, Richard Panik. He was making his KHL debut for Lokomotiv.

Panik would play 12 games for Detroit during the 2020-21 NHL season. He would collect a goal and three assists.

Rybar On Waivers

Former Grand Rapids Griffins goalie Patrik Rybar looks to be done playing in the KHL. He has been placed on waivers by Moscow Spartak.

Slovak netminder Rybar has played 90 games for Spartak since joining the club in 2022. Rybar, 31, sent 37 games with the AHL Griffins in 2018-19. He was 16-21-4 with a .908 save percentage and 2.49 goals-against average.