As Barys Nur-Sultan announces, they have signed the 29-year-old to a one-year contract. Joni Ortio thus returns to the KHL, where he had already suited up for Vityaz Podolsk during the 2018-19 season.
Ortio joined the ZSC Lions at the beginning of October 2019. He appeared in a total of 21 regular season games, in which he posted a save percentage of 91.7% and a goals against average (GAA) of 2.38. He thus performed slightly better than ZSC's starting goalie Lukas Flüeler.