On May 21, the Calgary Flames inked a three-year deal with the 88th overall pick in the 2019 Draft, Ilya Nikolaev. That day he would become the third player from the 2019 class to sign with the Flames after Jakob Pelletier and Dustin Wolf.
There wasn’t much noise about Nikolaev at the time, as the Flames were in the middle of the Battle of Alberta playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers. Who is this mysterious man from Yaroslavl, Russia, who has been ranked 18th on our annual ranking, and what do you need to know about him?
Ilya Nikolaev
Left-shooting centre
Born Jun.