The Minnesota Wild didn’t waste any time. Less than 24 hours after trading for Blake Coleman and Olli Maatta, they signed forward Maxim Shabanov to a one-year, $1.6 million deal for the 2026-27 season. The 25-year-old Russian became an unrestricted free agent when the New York Islanders declined to give him a qualifying offer earlier this week.
Shabanov is a left-handed shot who can play both wings, and the Wild see him as a top-nine forward who can chip in some offense. That’s exactly what they need right now. Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson and Vladimir Tarasenko all left this offseason, so there’s ice time available. And Shabanov has already shown he can produce at the NHL level.
He made his league debut with the Islanders last season and put up 5 goals and 13 assists in 44 games. That’s 18 points, with 5 of them coming on the power play. He averaged 13:41 per night, fired 56 shots on net, and scored in his very first game against the Penguins on Oct. 9. His best night came on Nov. 20 against the Red Wings, when he had two goals and an assist.
But the Wild aren’t just betting on that half-season sample. Before coming to North America, Shabanov was one of the best players in the KHL.
KHL Numbers That Jump Off the Page
Shabanov spent four seasons with Traktor Chelyabinsk from 2021 to 2025, totaling 67 goals and 83 assists for 150 points in 207 games. That’s a 0.72 points-per-game average in one of the toughest leagues outside the NHL. His 2024-25 season was just ridiculous: 23 goals and 44 assists for 67 points in 65 games, which ranked third in the entire KHL in scoring. He made the First All-Star Team for that.
He was even better in the 2025 KHL playoffs. Traktor made it all the way to the Gagarin Cup Final, and Shabanov led the postseason with 10 goals. He added 10 assists for 20 points in 21 games, plus a league-best plus-14 rating. He also played in the KHL All-Star Game in both 2024 and 2025. The guy knows how to show up when the games matter.
A Russian Core Taking Shape in Minnesota
Shabanov now joins a Wild locker room that already has Kirill Kaprizov, Yakov Trenin and Danila Yurov. That’s four Russian forwards who can speak the same language on and off the ice. Whether that chemistry translates to more goals remains to be seen, but the fit makes sense on paper.
The Wild are clearly trying to reload on the fly after losing some veteran scoring. Shabanov is young enough to grow with the core and cheap enough that the $1.6 million cap hit won’t hurt if he struggles. But if he hits like he did in the KHL, this could be one of the smarter value signings of the summer.
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