From the sounds of it, Nikita Okhotiuk won’t be returning to North America any time soon.

The 23-year-old defenceman, who skated in nine games with the Flames to conclude the 2023-24 season, gave an interview to Russian outlet Sports.ru earlier this month in which he expressed his excitement about being back in his home country.

“I never liked living in America – there was not enough of our culture,” Okhotiuk, who recently signed a two-year deal with KHL club CSKA Moscow, told Sports.ru (translated from Russian). “It’s hard with my mentality in the USA – I love Russia very much.

“I’ll be honest: I wanted to come back three years ago, every year I thought about it, tried, but it didn’t work out,” Okhotiuk added. “The contract was ending, half of the season passed overseas, I already made a decision for myself: ‘It’s time.'”

The Flames took a flier on Okhotiuk ahead of this year’s trade deadline, sending a 2024 fifth-round pick to the San Jose Sharks to receive the Chelyabinsk-born left-handed defender. The Sharks used the pick on Vancouver Giants defenceman Colton Roberts.

Okhotiuk struggled to make an impact over his brief tenure with the Flames, averaging just 13:21 of ice time and regularly sitting out games as a healthy scratch. He remarked to Sports.ru that he “felt out of place” and wasn’t given a real chance in Calgary.

The New Jersey Devils originally selected Okhotiuk in the second round (No. 61 overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft, making him their second draft choice that year after No. 1 selection Jack Hughes. After finishing his junior career with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, Okhotiuk made his NHL debut with the Devils in the 2021-22 season.

The 6’1″, 195-pound Okhotiuk appeared in 15 games with the Devils over parts of two seasons before being traded to the Sharks in February 2023 as part of the enormous Timo Meier deal. He skated in 43 games with the Sharks to begin the 2023-24 season, collecting one goal and eight points.

“When I played for New Jersey, I tried to leave every year, but I wasn’t let go. I personally talked, tried to negotiate, met with the general manager,” Okhotiuk said. “In terms of life, I’ve never liked living in America. I repeat: We lacked our culture and mentality. In the United States and Russia, everything is different, there is nothing in common.”

CSKA Moscow’s roster for the 2024-25 season is slated to include a trio of ex-Flames pieces in Okhotiuk, Nikita Nesterov, and Pavel Karnaukhov, as well as former NHLers Denis Gurianov, Vladislav Kamenev, Maxim Mamin, Fredrik Claesson, Christian Jaros, and Ivan Prosvetov, among others.

The Flames have spent a large portion of the last 12 months acquiring young, cost-controlled defenders, such as Kevin Bahl, Daniil Miromanov, Brayden Pachal, Hunter Brzustewicz, and Artem Grushnikov. They also signed Jake Bean as an unrestricted free agent from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

As such, Calgary likely won’t miss Okhotiuk all that much — although, by tendering him a qualifying offer as a pending RFA, the organization did keep the door open for him to return as a member of the Flames if he changes his mind about playing in North America before he turns 27.