 His call up to the NHL came during the 2000–01 season, during which he played six games for the Mighty Ducks, scoring one assist.He spent the next two seasons in Cincinnati before he was traded to the New Jersey Devils on July 6, 2002 with Jeff Friesen and Oleg Tverdovsky for Petr Sýkora, Jean-Francois Damphousse, Mike Commodore, and Igor Pohanka.Balmochnykh returned to Russia in 2002 with Severstal Cherepovets while New Jersey retained his NHL rights.