September 6th: Kahun’s three-year deal with SC Bern was made official by the team this morning. Oilers reporter Jim Matheson reports that Kahun’s deal includes an out clause every offseason if Kahun wishes to return to the NHL.
August 26th: After his rookie season, free agent forward Dominik Kahun looked like he’d be a decent secondary player in the NHL but things haven’t gone well for him since then. As a result, it appears that he could be heading overseas as a report from Blick in Switzerland has the 26-year-old nearing a three-year deal with SC Bern of the Swiss NLA.
Kahun was somewhat surprisingly non-tendered by Buffalo last fall after the Sabres acquired him from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline. After waiting the market out, he was able to catch on with Edmonton who eyed reuniting him with fellow countryman Leon Draisaitl in the hopes of having Kahun provide some depth scoring for a low cost.
Unfortunately for Kahun and the Oilers, that didn’t exactly happen. He managed just nine goals and six assists in 48 games (after notching more than 30 points in each of his first two years) and wound up working his way down the lineup and eventually in the press box as he only suited up in two of their four playoff games.
With the year he had, Kahun may have been hard-pressed to land a one-way NHL contract on the open market this time around – a PTO may have been his likeliest scenario – so opting to head overseas certainly makes sense and if he’s able to land a three-year deal, that’s a lot more security than he’d have received going year-to-year in North America.