Apparently, the Blues have signed 2003 draftee Evgeny Skachkov to a three-year deal. Skachkov was the leading scorer for Russian club Traktor Chelyabinsk last year with 22 goals (8 PPG) and 36 points in 51 games.

LINK to translation of story at "new.sport-express.ru."

LINK to Skachkov career stats at Swedish site "elite prospects dot com," which I have found to be pretty comprehensive in covering the European hockey scene.

If this is a legitimate signing, it's good news for Peoria (provided Skachkov will go there, and stay there). He's averaged just under 16 goals per season (averahing about 53 games played per season) in the Russian Superleague and KHL over the last four seasons, which translates 0.30 goals per game, or 24 goals in an 80-game season, at a level very comparable to AHL play.

Skachkov showed up for Development Camp three seasons ago, and did not look out of place amongst his peers. It will be interesting to see if he is there again this season.

UPDATE... I thought I had some photographic evidence of Skachkov's previous visit to St. Louis. After the jump, check out a couple of pictures of the new guy, From Russia With Love.

Here's a photo of Skachkov coming onto the ice for the third period of the 2007 Development Camp Scrimmage. Yes, that's David "Frenchie" Perron in the yellow #57 off to Skachkov's left. This was Perron's first and only Development Camp; he became a semi-regular with the Blues that season (thanks, Andy Murray) and has never seen a minute in the American League.

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Here's Skachkov in action in the third period of that 2007 Development Camp Scrimmage. He's being guarded by Ian Cole as Jay Barriball and Cade Fairchild, teammates at the University of Minnesota, mix it up in front of Reto Berra. Of the five prospects in this picture, Skachkov was always considered the one least likely to play pro here in North America; now it looks like he may be doing just that next season, either in Peoria or in St. Louis...

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Finally, here's a headshot of Skachkov... sorry for the damn "red eye;" at the time this photo was taken, I hadn't yet learned how to eliminate/reduce that in the close-ups...