A month after being first linked to him, the Arizona Coyotes have signed Milos Kelemen to a two-year entry-level contract. Kelemen spent this season playing in the Czech league, and will be able to join the Coyotes organization in 2022-23. The deal comes with a cap hit of $817.5K. General manager Bill Armstrong released the following statement:
We are very pleased to have Milos join our organization. He is a big, strong winger with a good scoring touch. We look forward to watching his development next season.
Kelemen, 22, is an undrafted forward that has appeared all over the place the last few years, suiting up in the Czech league, the Slovak league, and the KHL, while also representing Slovakia at the World Juniors and recent Olympics. While some of his performances have been better than others, it was his playoff run this year that was the more impressive, scoring nine goals and 12 points for Mlada Boleslav BK in just 14 games.
Whether he can add anything at the NHL level certainly remains to be seen, but these are the kind of chances that a rebuilding team can take without risk. If he can find a place with the Coyotes, it will have cost them nothing more than the opportunity, and if not, he’ll likely go back overseas. With so few players in the organization signed through next season (and even fewer the year after), Armstrong and the rest of the Coyotes front office will likely be looking to take as many swings as possible to try and find overlooked talent.
Probably will play in front of more fans at Mlada Boleslav BK
rumor has it that he is a lock to pledge delta