Utah signs top defensive prospect Dmitri Simashev to entry-level contract

The Utah Mammoth announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to terms on a three-year, entry-level contract with defenseman Dmitri Simashev.

The organization, then the Arizona Coyotes, chose Simashev with the sixth overall pick in the 2023 NHL entry draft.

“We are thrilled to sign Dmitri to an NHL contract,” general manager Bill Armstrong said via the team’s press release. “Dmitri has established himself as one of the top defenseman prospects in the NHL and we look forward to watching him play for the Mammoth for many years to come.”

Simashev is now set to head to North America after a year in which he won the Gagarin Cup as the champions of the KHL with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

In 56 regular season contests with Lokomotiv, Simashev scored a goal and added five assists while taking only four minutes wroth of penalties and posting a plus-9 rating.

In the playoffs, Simashev posted one assist in 21 games as the club defeated Traktor Chelyabinsk in the Gagarin Cup Final.

In his draft year, the six-foot-five left-handed blue liner put up 10 points in 29 games with Loko Yaroslavl of the MHL.

Simashev is one of the top prospects to emerge from Russia in recent years, but he has not had the opportunity to participate in the U-20 World Junior Championships due to ongoing IIHF sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the conflict in Ukraine.

The Mammoth just concluded their inaugural season, going 38-31-13 and falling seven points short of the wild card cutline.

The club has seven defensemen signed to NHL contracts ahead of the 2025-2026 season, including Mikahail Sergachev, Sean Durzi, John Marino, Olli Maatta, Ian Cole, Juuso Valimaki and Michael Kesselring with Robert Bortuzzo and Nick DeSimone slated to hit unrestricted free agency.

Simashev will join fellow Russian Artyom Duda in the organizational pipeline, as the Coyotes chose Duda with the No. 36 overall pick in the 2022 draft.