On Sunday morning, the Minnesota Wild announced that they have placed forward Alexander Khovanov on unconditional waivers. No further explanation was given by the team, but this process is only used when buying out the contract of a player who will most likely be heading back to Europe to play pro over there.
A 2018 third-round pick of the Wild, Khovanov had loads of hype as one of the team’s top prospects as he finished out his QMJHL career with a 99-point season. After that, he headed back to Russia to just play seven games in the KHL — all held without a point — and he was eventually demoted to the VHL (the Russian second division) where he scored 24 points in 30 games.