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MOSCOW—Former Los Angeles Kings defenceman Slava Voynov signed a one-year deal in the Kontinental Hockey League on Monday as he sits out the final months of his NHL suspension.
He is joining Russian KHL club Avangard Omsk after sitting out all of last season. His NHL suspension, imposed after the league determined he committed acts of domestic violence, will end midway through the season.
Voynov was suspended indefinitely in October 2014 after being arrested and accused of abusing his wife. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour, left the United States to go back to Russia and last year had the conviction dismissed by a judge in Los Angeles. His most recent suspension was imposed in April after he applied for reinstatement.
Voynov won an Olympic gold medal at the tournament last year which didn’t have NHL players. He didn’t play any pro hockey last season as he focused on his NHL appeals process.
“Experience, skill, reliability, scoring. That’s how Vyacheslav Voynov is known to all hockey fans,” said Avangard president Maxim Sushinsky, using Voynov’s full first name. “In our case you can add Voynov’s huge motivation to prove to everyone and most of all to himself that he can reach the very highest targets with a top club.”
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Avangard didn’t comment on Voynov’s NHL situation.
Voynov won the Stanley Cup with Los Angeles in 2012 and 2014. Los Angeles still holds Voynov’s NHL rights, but has said it won’t sign a new contract with him.
Voynov previously played three KHL seasons with SKA St. Petersburg between 2015 and 2018, lifting the KHL’s Gagarin Cup in 2017.