After Nick Bonino received his release from the Rangers back in February and didn’t sign anywhere in free agency or the opening weeks of the season, it looked like Nick Bonino’s playing career had come to an end. However, that’s not the case as HK Olimpija Ljubljana of the ICEHL announced on their Instagram page that they’ve signed the veteran for the remainder of the season.
The 36-year-old played in 45 games with New York last season on the fourth line but struggled, recording just one goal and four assists while logging 12:15 per night of playing time. In late January, the Rangers elected to waive Bonino and after he passed through unclaimed, he decided not to report to AHL Hartford and was put on unconditional waivers in early February, being released after clearing once again.
Bonino has 868 career regular season games in the NHL under his belt over 15 seasons with seven different organizations. He has 159 goals and 199 assists to his name, a very solid career for a sixth-round pick back in 2007 when he was selected 173rd overall. It’s unlikely he’ll be adding to those totals at this point of his career but this contract suggests that he’s not ready to hang up his skates just yet.
I have literally never heard of this league before but good for him. Is this like a former Yugoslav league?
It’s actually the league where my hometown club plays. It’s not a league tied to a single country. Once it was the Austrian league, but it’s open for different Central and Eastern European clubs now who are either too bad for their own first tier league or too good, or don’t have an own pro league, or have their other reasons like more convenient scheduling or travel. Imagine it like a NCAA conference that isn’t tied to a single state/region (just on a European pro level).
Currently there are teams from Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Italy. But we also had teams from Czechia and Slovakia (not the good ones, unfortunately) and Croatia in the past. The league is currently ranked 6th amongst European first tier hockey leagues (but one could argue that Swedish second tier is still better)
I gotta say too, for Bonino’s sake, Slovenia is really quite an amazing country to choose to live in. Cost of living is quite low, but social services are stellar. If I had to be a refugee from Canada, Slovenia is definitely in the Top 10. XD