Forward signs five-year deal with a $5 million AAV to stay in Vegas.

Ivan Barbashev has re-signed with the Vegas Golden Knights, the team announced Wednesday.

The deal is for five years with an AAV of $5 million per season. 

The 27-year-old forward appeared in 23 games for Vegas, scoring 16 points (six goals, 10 assists). He also was a force in the playoffs, tallying 18 points (seven goals and 11 assists) in 22 playoff games.

He was plus-14 in the playoff games, second behind linemate Jonathan Marchessault.

"His ability to fit in so seamlessly with Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault, give us a really good top line. You know, I made the comment when we acquired Ivan in late February, early March that we've been looking for a player like this for some time. He's in the prime of his career," Vegas General Manager Kelly McCrimmon said to the media at the NHL Entry Draft. "He played extremely well. We won a Stanley Cup. He was a big part of that. We wanted to keep him, so that's where the conversation began. And then from there, you start to go through your different ways of addressing your salary cap and getting it to where it needs to be."

The announcement of the deal came an hour after the Golden Knights announced the trade of well-liked forward Reilly Smith to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"Unfortunately, we moved Reilly to Pittsburgh to facilitate some of the other moves we want to make. We were not looking to bring anyone in from outside the organization," McCrimmon said. "All the decisions we were making were with people we just won the Stanley Cup with. So by definition, that makes those decisions difficult and challenging to make, but we feel like we got our way through it. We’re excited for what it means to the makeup of our roster."

Earlier in the day, the Golden Knights announced they also re-signed defenseman Brayden Pachal to a two-year deal with an AAV of $775,000.