General | 12/14/2023 11:29:14 AM

The Tri-City Storm announced today that they have signed forward Ilya Morozov to a USHL Tender agreement for the 2024-25 season.

A native of Moskva, Russia, Morozov is playing for the Windy City Storm U15 AAA team this season. In 24 games, Morozov has tallied 17 goals and 26 assists. He previously played for Orbita Zelenograd in Zelenograd, Russia before coming to the United States.

“As an organization we are thrilled to add Ilya Morozov to our family,” said Anthony Noreen, Tri-City’s President of Hockey Operations/Head Coach. “Ilya is a two-way center who plays the game the right way and has high-end offensive upside. Equally as important, he is a leader that that will strengthen our culture through the way he carries himself and goes about his work.”

The USHL tender process allows teams to sign up to two 2008 birth year players in exchange for their first and second-round picks in the 2024 USHL Phase I Draft. As a result of signing Morozov the Storm surrender their first-round pick in Phase I of the USHL Draft this upcoming spring.  Each tendered player will be on their respective team’s roster the next season and play at least 55% of the team’s regular season games.

Morozov becomes the 12th tender in Storm history, joining Cooper Simpson (2023), Trevor Connelly (2022), Matthew Virgillio (2022), Tanner Adams (2021), Andrew Strathmann (2021), Vinny Borgesi (2020), Gavin Brindley (2020), Davis Burnside (2019), Colby Ambrosio (2018), Ruben Rafkin (2018), Tory Dello (2013).