Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward Phil Varone signs with KHL team
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Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward Phil Varone signed a one-year contract with Barys Nur-Sultan, a team in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) based in Kazakhstan.
Varone’s time with the Penguins organization was brief. Acquired in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 20, Varone appeared in six American Hockey League games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and recorded five assists before the AHL season was halted in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
When the NHL resumed play with a postseason tournament in August, Varone, 29, was included on the Penguins roster as a reserve player but never played a game.
A fifth-round pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2009, Varone (5-foot-10, 186 pounds) played 97 career NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators as well as Philadelphia Flyers and has 17 points (eight goals, nine assists).
In 2017-18, while as a member of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Varone won the Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP.