Controversial defenseman Slava Voynov has made his decision.

Fans in the National Hockey League will likely breath a collective sigh of relief.

For months now there have been rumblings that former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov was seeking to potentially return to the National Hockey League. Voynov of course was banned from the NHL for an indefinite period of time after reports surfaced indicating that he had been extremely abusive to his wife. The details surrounding the case were harrowing, and that is putting it mildly, effectively forcing the NHL to come down with a severe ban on Voynov.

According to reports on the incident police officer Gregory Wiist found blood all over the bedroom and other parts of the house after the incident. Additionally Voynov's wife, Marta Varlamova, allegedly told the officer that this was not the first time that this had happened, although she would later state that a language barrier had resulted in her comments being misinterpreted. 

Needless to say you can see why fans were not excited at the prospect of him coming back to the league, but in spite of his dark past there was reportedly plenty of interest from around the NHL. The NHL however has indicated that even should Voynov be reinstated, he would have to serve a lengthy suspension as a result of his conduct off the ice prior to being eligible to play for whatever team may sign him. It may be that this threat from the league was enough to scare every NHL team away from the possibility of bringing back the controversial defenseman, because it now seems like he will not be coming back.

According to a report from Igor Eronko of Sports Express it now appears that Voynov has taken on a KHL deal, although it sounds like it may not be his long term plan to remain there. Eronko reports that Voynov will sign for $1.1 million with the KHL's Avangard, although it will only be on a 1 year deal. This would indicate to me that Voynov may try his luck once again this upcoming summer, although I must admit that this is purely speculation on my part. Hopefully I am wrong on this one, but given the rumored interest this time around I would not be surprised.