After recovering from his lower-body injury suffered in the preseason while on a Professional Tryout agreement with the Philadelphia Flyers, forward Artem Anisimov is joining the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms on another PTO.
Anisimov, a second-round pick by the New York Rangers in 2006, had signed a PTO with the Flyers back in September and appeared in one preseason game for Philadelphia on September 24th against Boston, which resulted in a 2-1 Flyers victory. Anisimov racked up two penalty minutes, two blocked shots, one hit, one shot on goal, and won 46% of his faceoffs in the contest.
Before entering the Philadelphia organization, Anisimov has made NHL stops with the Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, and Ottawa Senators. He has also spent time in the KHL on a few occasions with his hometown club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
Anisimov recorded 8 goals and 11 assists for 19 points in 27 appearances for Lokomotiv during the 2021-22 season, and he also tacked on a goal and two assists in four Gagarin Cup playoff games as Lokomotiv bowed out to Flyers goaltending prospect Ivan Fedotov and eventual league champions CSKA Moscow in an opening round sweep.
Over his NHL career, Anisimov has posted 180 goals and 196 assist for 376 points in 771 contests. His best season came in 2016-17 with Chicago when he tied his career-high with 22 goals and set new career-highs with 23 assists and 45 points in 64 games.
Anisimov’s most recent NHL stop came in Ottawa during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Anisimov appeared in just 19 of 56 games for the Senators that season, scoring 2 goals and 7 assists.
The 34-year-old center was originally brought in because of his familiarity with head coach John Tortorella and to help stabilize the Flyers’ bottom-six group. Anisimov played in New York under Tortorella for three seasons before being traded to Columbus during the 2012 offseason along with Brandon Dubinsky and Tim Erixon in exchange for Rick Nash and former Phantom Steven Delisle.
Anisimov will join a young and tenacious team in Lehigh Valley to help provide leadership and depth. The Phantoms are 5-5-1 in the early going of the season, sitting seventh in the Atlantic Division standings. 2019 first-rounder Cam York is leading the way for the club as in 11 games he has recorded 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points, leading the team in the latter two categories. 2020 fifth-round pick Elliot Desnoyers leads the team in goals with 4, and while there are still some growing pains for the young team, Ian Laperrière’s squad is showing signs of improvement and Anisimov should help them get even better.
