HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga has signed forward Jakub Lauko to a three-year deal, the team announced today. Lauko wasn’t tendered by the Bruins in June, and after presumably not receiving any suitable NHL offers as an unrestricted free agent, he’ll be returning to his home country.
Lauko put up a career-high five goals and 11 points in 56 games in an injury-plagued campaign split between the Wild and Bruins last season, missing long stretches of the early going with Minnesota while dealing with a muscular lower-body issue. Lauko played in all 18 games for Boston after they re-acquired him from Minnesota at the deadline in the Justin Brazeau deal, finishing the year with five points and 50 hits while averaging 12:07 per game.
After making his NHL debut with Boston in 2022-23, four years after they drafted him in the third round of the 2018 draft, the Bruins moved him to the Wild last summer in exchange for veteran depth forward Vinni Lettieri. While Minnesota was hoping the young energy winger could flash a little more upside than he had in his first two years in Boston, he struggled to produce like everyone else the Wild tried in a fourth-line role. He had six points and a minus-five rating with 69 hits in 38 appearances for the Wild before getting shipped back to the B’s.
The Prague native now returns home to build on his previous Extraliga experience, which includes stints with Piráti Chomutov (2016-18) and HC Energie Karlovy Vary (2020-21). He has a 10-11–21 scoring line in 95 career Extraliga games, but he presumably hopes returning home helps him rediscover his offensive game. In his post-draft season, Lauko came to North America to play junior hockey and recorded 41 points in only 44 games for the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies en route to a Memorial Cup championship.
Entering his age-25 season, there’s still time for Lauko to put himself back on the NHL radar by the time his contract with Dynamo ends. He joins a Pardubice roster that has over 1,100 combined games of NHL experience with names like Libor Hájek, Lukáš Sedlák, and Vladimír Sobotka. They’re looking to get over the hump after back-to-back Extraliga final losses in 2024 and 2025.