In the 2012 draft, in the seventh round, 202nd overall the Tampa Bay Lightning selected winger Nikita Gusev out of CSKA Moskva in the KHL.
Since that 2011-2012 season, Gusev never looked back. He was 19 at the time and put up insane numbers in the MHL with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva. The Moscow native put up 30 goals and 46 assists in 34 games.
He bounced around the KHL going from CSKA Moskva, Amur Khabarovsk and Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk. From 2011-2014, he recorded 15 goals and 16 assists in 89 games. He was never able to quite find his game as he was bouncing around from team to team.