Canucks Add KHL Forward Ilya Safonov on One-Year Deal

Vancouver is taking a low-cost swing on Ilya Safonov, a 24-year-old center whose game has been built in the KHL rather than North America. A one-year, two-way contract tells you the Canucks are buying lottery-ticket upside without promising him anything more than a crack at making noise. These are the kinds of moves that usually get buried in June, but they can matter later when a team is chasing depth and trying to make the math work.