Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Czech Extraliga

Devin Shore Signs With HC Sparta Prague

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After spending his entire career in North America, pending UFA forward Devin Shore is heading overseas. He signed a one-year deal with HC Sparta Prague of the Czech Extraliga today, the club announced.

Shore, 31 in July, spent this season on a two-way deal with the Wild. He was meant to be a top-six piece for AHL Iowa, but a never-ending list of injuries to Minnesota’s forward group meant he spent most of the season up with the big club.

Outside of throwing the body with 76 hits, he wasn’t particularly effective in fourth-line minutes. Averaging 8:39 of ice time over 55 games, Shore recorded a 1-4–5 scoring line, a minus-eight rating, and some of the worst even-strength possession metrics on the team (40.9 CF%, 38.1 xGF%).

Shore was once an everyday NHL contributor and even had back-to-back 30-point seasons with the Stars in 2016-17 and 2017-18 to kick off his career, but he hasn’t held down a consistent role since. His 55 appearances this season were his most since the 2018-19 campaign, and he hasn’t hit double digits in goals since then, either.

A second-round pick by Dallas in 2012, he’s appeared in parts of the last 10 NHL seasons and has also made stops in Anaheim, Columbus, Edmonton, and Seattle. He heads overseas after recording 52 goals and 144 points in 498 NHL games, a career that’s unlikely to extend at his age.

He’ll head to Czechia to link up with other ex-NHLers like Roman Horák, Michal Kempný, and Mark Pysyk on Sparta’s 2025-26 roster.

International Notes: Pysyk, Raffl, Leskinen

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Prague’s HC Sparta of the Czech Extraliga announced they’ve brought in former NHL defenseman Mark Pysyk for the 2025-26 campaign. The 33-year-old hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2021-22 campaign with the Sabres, and, although he was slated to play 2022-23 with the Red Wings after signing there in free agency, missed the entirety of that season due to an Achilles injury. He’s been working his way back to consistent playing time since, spending parts of 2023-24 with the Penguins’ and Flames’ farm teams before heading overseas. He spent this year in Finland with Liiga’s SaiPa, recording nine points and a +11 rating in 36 regular-season games before advancing to the championship series, coming up short to KalPa in the final. With Pysyk’s 521 games of NHL experience with the Sabres, Panthers, and Stars in the fold, Prague rejoins him with a couple of recognizable names, including 2018 Stanley Cup champion Michal Kempny and Mammoth reserve list netminder Josef Korenar.

There’s more from the top-level European leagues:

  • Longtime NHL winger Michael Raffl is heading back home to Austria on a one-year deal with EC Salzburg of the ICEHL, per a club announcement. The longtime Flyers depth scorer last suited up in the NHL with Dallas in the 2021-22 campaign. He’s spent the three years since in Switzerland with the National League’s Lausanne HC, serving as captain for the latter two. Injuries have limited him to just 55 total appearances in that time, but he did well in limited action last year (5-9–14 in 16 GP). He’ll now get to play with his older brother Thomas Raffl in his home country. The latter has been with Salzburg since the 2010-11 season and served as captain since 2019.
  • Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League announced they’ve agreed to terms with defenseman Otto Leskinen on a two-year deal. A former Canadiens prospect, the Finnish rearguard had spent parts of three of the last four seasons in his home country’s Liiga with Tappara but now moves to the slightly more competitive Swedish circuit for the first time in his career. The 28-year-old got into six NHL games with Montreal over the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns and last appeared in North America with AHL Laval in 2022-23. A smallish lefty with good offensive instincts, he led Tappara’s defense in scoring this year with 38 points in 52 games.

John Ludvig Receiving Interest From Dynamo Pardubice

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While it remains to be seen if the Avalanche will issue pending restricted free agent defenseman John Ludvig a qualifying offer next month, it appears as if he’ll have at least one other option on the table.  iSport’s Miroslav Horak relays that the blueliner is on the radar of Dynamo Pardubice in the Czech Extraliga for next season.

The 24-year-old was claimed off waivers in training camp for the second straight year, this time by Colorado.  However, this time around, he cleared waivers in mid-January after spending a lot of the first half of the season as a scratch.  All told, Ludvig played in just eight games for the Avs, notching two assists in a little under 13 minutes a night of playing time.  He also got into 30 games with AHL Colorado, picking up a goal and 11 helpers.

Ludvig played in 33 NHL games with Pittsburgh in his only other taste of action at the top level but his first three professional seasons – largely mired with injuries – were spent in the minors.

Ludvig will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this summer and that eligibility could work against him as his NHL experience could allow him to command more than the minimum salary.  It’s unlikely Colorado would like him making closer to the $1MM mark so if they can’t reach a deal beforehand, there’s a decent chance he will be non-tendered late next month which could make a decision to go play back home much more palatable.

Filip Král Signs Three-Year Deal In Czechia

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Defenseman Filip Král’s return to North America was short-lived. The Penguins’ pending Group VI unrestricted free agent has opted to return home to Czechia on a three-year deal with HC Kometa Brno, the club announced.

The 25-year-old Král thus returns to the club where he’s spent the overwhelming majority of his European professional career. He played his youth hockey in Brno before opting to cross the Atlantic to play junior hockey with the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs in the 2017-18 campaign. That decision helped him get drafted by the Maple Leafs in the fifth round the following summer. He played an additional pair of seasons in Spokane before turning pro with the Leafs, first on a loan back to Brno at the beginning of the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season before reporting to their AHL affiliate.

Král spent parts of three years in the NHL and AHL with Toronto, including making his NHL debut in a pair of contests in October 2022. That was it for the 6’2″ lefty, though. After injuries limited him to six points in 24 AHL games in the 2022-23 campaign, the Leafs didn’t tender a qualifying offer when his entry-level contract expired and he became an unrestricted free agent. With no NHL offers, he spent 2023-24 in Finland with the Pelicans of the top-level Liiga. It was a prudent decision for Král, who put himself back on NHL clubs’ radars with a 37-point, +28 campaign in 46 games en route to being named a Liiga All-Star.

Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, who made Král part of his first draft class at the helm of the Maple Leafs six years ago, brought him back on a two-way deal last summer. He didn’t make the team out of camp, though, and didn’t get a call-up until the final days of the season after clearing waivers in October. That call-up didn’t result in an appearance, so he finished the regular season with a 7-22–29 scoring line and a -16 rating in 61 showings for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Without a clear path to the NHL next season, it’s not surprising to see Král opt for a more familiar environment in his home country. He has 6-17–23 with a +16 rating in 75 previous Extraliga games with Brno.

Utah Signs Michal Kunc to One-Year Contract

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Utah Hockey Club has signed Czech forward Michal Kunc to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2025-26 season. The move will send Kunc to North America after six seasons in the Czech Extraliga. Kunc’s Olomouc just survived relegation with a 4-0 sweep of Jihlava.

The 24-year-old Kunc was the top forward for Olomouc this season. He tied for second on the team with 13 goals, and led the team outright with 35 points, scored in 49 games. The marks were both career-highs for Kunc, lapping the 11 goals and 23 points he posted in 48 games last season.

Kunc made his pro debut with Brno Kometa in the 2019-20 season. He spent 25 games and scored two points with the club before a mid-season move to Olomouc in 2020-21. Kunc quickly found a scoring groove with the move – netting seven points in his first 17 games in the new setting – but he wasn’t able to keep it up through the next two seasons. That’s what has helped his performances since 2023 stand out so proudly – as the young, bottom-of-the-lineup finds his pro footing.

Kunc is a sturdy forward who plays responsibly in all three zones. He brought a physical presence to play along the boards, and a hard-working motor to drives into the low-slot. Those attributes – and his ability to fill the pest role – should help Kunc earn a strong role in a Utah organization that’s already found ways to utilize bump-and-grind forwards out of Czechia.

Jakub Zboril Signs In Czech League

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After spending last season in the minors, free agent defenseman Jakub Zboril had to settle for a PTO in training camp, getting one with New Jersey.  While he played in four games for them in the preseason, no contract came his way so now, he’s heading back home.  HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga announced that they’ve signed the blueliner to a contract through the 2028-29 campaign.

The 27-year-old was a first-round pick by Boston in 2015, going 13th overall. He was the first of three consecutive first-rounders by the Bruins, followed by Jake DeBrusk and Zachary Senyshyn. Zboril was a solid two-way defender at the major junior level but wasn’t able to replicate that offensive success in the pros.

Zboril played in 76 NHL games over parts of four seasons with the Bruins, almost exclusively in a third-pairing role while also battling injuries.  He had a goal and 15 assists in those appearances while averaging 15:38 per game.

Zboril played in 46 games in the AHL last season, split between Boston’s farm team and Columbus after he was acquired at the trade deadline, collecting 13 assists.  Overall, he has played in 228 games at that level, tallying 11 goals and 59 assists.

Considering that Zboril didn’t qualify for full AHL veteran status for this season (320 or more professional games played), it’s likely that he had offers to play at that level.  However, if those were the options he had on the table, it certainly makes sense for him to play at home.  With it being a five-year deal, however, that might take away a chance for him to return to North America down the road.

International Notes: Greiss, McKegg, Ritchie

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Goaltender Thomas Greiss has come out of retirement to sign what’s being described as a “short-term deal” with Lowen Frankfurt as the team bears through injuries to both of their goaltenders. Greiss is headed to Frankfurt from St. Louis, where he’s resided since joining the Blues in 2022. He announced his retirement following the end of the 2022-23 campaign, bringing an end to his 14-year career in the NHL.

Greiss found multiple paths to notoriety throughout his career – but became most well-known for his role in the New York Islanders’ goaltending carousel from 2015 to 2020. He moved to Long Island on a two-year contract, immediately assuming the starting role ahead of Jaroslav Halak. Greiss performed well on the deal, posting 49 wins and a .918 save percentage through a combined 92 games. That was enough to earn Greiss a three-year extension following the end of his deal, though New York would bring in Robin Lehner in 2018 and Sergei Varlamov in 2019 to split starts with the aging German. Those additions ultimately pushed Greiss towards a handful of sunset years with the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues. He’d end his career with 368 games, 162 wins, and a .911 save percentage; playing with six different franchises, though only ever reaching 100 games with the Islanders. He’ll now bring that NHL experience to a reunion in Germany’s top league, having played 36 games and recorded a .925 save percentage from 2003 to 2006.

Other notes from around the hockey world:

  • Veteran NHL forward Greg McKegg has signed with BK Mlada Boleslav of the Czechia Extraliga. It’s his first trip overseas, after spending the last 11 seasons across North American pros. He’s totaled 233 NHL games across nine seasons and seven organizations. He managed 21 goals and 39 points in that span, routinely filling a fourth-line role. McKegg will be the only one on Boleslav with NHL experience, though he’s one of 42 NHL vets across the league.
  • Fellow veteran NHL forward Brett Ritchie will move close by, signing a deal with HK Nitra of Slovakia’s Tipos Extraliga, the team announced on Instagram. Ritchie played in his first European season last year, recording three points in 12 games with the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk. He’s just two years removed from NHL action, having played in 50 games and scored 13 points between the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes in 2022-23. That season stands as the cap on Ritchie’s 391-game career in the NHL as he continues a trek around European hockey.

International Notes: Nogier, Masin, Kallionkieli

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After some notable international signings earlier today, there’s more to cover. One is former Jets defenseman Nelson Nogier, who’s sticking in Europe for the third straight season after signing a one-year deal with Germany’s Straubing Tigers yesterday.

Nogier, 28, was a fourth-round pick of Winnipeg in 2014. He logged brief action with the Jets in the 2016-17 and 2018-19 campaigns, amounting to 11 total games of NHL experience with no points, a -1 rating and 5 PIMs. The 6’3″, 207-lb right-shot defenseman spent most of his time with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, where he posted 41 points in 242 games across six seasons with the organization.

After being traded to the Kings in a minor swap late in 2021-22, Nogier posted four points in 13 games for their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, before reaching unrestricted free agency that summer. He immediately headed overseas, heading to Kazakhstan with Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League. That’s where he spent the last two seasons, amassing 20 points and a -14 rating in 117 appearances. Late in the European transfer period, with regular seasons about to get underway, he’ll look to make an impact in Straubing alongside former NHLers Justin Braun, Taylor Leier, and others.

Some more overseas moves:

  • Former Lightning second-round pick Dominik Masin has signed in his native Czechia for the first time in his professional career, inking a three-year deal with HC Sparta Prague. Masin, now 28, logged 58 points in 273 appearances from the blue line for the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, from 2016 to 2020. He never received a call-up, though, and headed overseas upon becoming a restricted free agent during the pandemic. The Lightning still held his signing rights up until February of last year. Masin spent parts of the last three years playing for Ilves in Finland, helping them to a third-place finish in Liiga in 2022.
  • Former Golden Knights prospect Marcus Kallionkieli is returning to Poland, inking a one-year deal with GKS Katowice. The 23-year-old winger has had quite the peculiar ride, plagued by injuries for much of his time under contract with Vegas. Last year, the final one of his entry-level contract, the organization loaned him to Poland’s STS Sanok before reassigning him to Finland’s Kiekko-Espoo and then placing him on unconditional waivers for mutual contract termination in February. A fifth-round pick in 2019, the Finnish-Brazilian national had two goals in six games with their AHL affiliate in Henderson in 2020-21 and one goal in five games with the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates during an injury-truncated 2022-23 campaign.

International Notes: Filppula, Has, Andrighetto

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Triple Gold Club member Valtteri Filppula appears to be returning home for what is likely his final professional season. The 40-year-old is expected to join Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier Mestis for 2024-25, Sami Hoffrén and Marko Lempinen of Helsingen Sanomat report.

Filppula, a third-round pick of the Red Wings back in 2002, won the Stanley Cup with them six years later as part of a 16-year, 1,056-game NHL career. Split between the Wings, Lightning, Flyers and Islanders, he amassed 197 goals, 333 assists, 530 points, a -4 rating, and a 50.5% career win rate in the dot in the regular season.

The two-way pivot returned to Europe after becoming a free agent in 2021, and he’s spent the last three seasons in Switzerland with Genève-Servette HC of the National League. He was a premier offensive presence there, even in his late 30s, scoring 47 goals and 84 assists for 131 points in 145 games. But after a pair of seasons around a point per game, his production dropped off to 33 points in 51 games last year.

Filppula was a member of the Finnish national team that won gold at the Winter Olympics and the World Championship in 2022, making him the first Finn to win both in addition to a Stanley Cup. He now returns to Jokerit, where he played for two seasons before coming to the NHL in 2005.

The Helsinki-based franchise was once one of the top clubs in Europe, but their decision to leave the top Finnish league for Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League in 2013 proved fateful. They withdrew from the KHL midseason in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and missed 2022-23 entirely before restarting operations in Mestis last year.

More notable items from abroad:

  • Former Capitals defense prospect Martin Has has signed a tryout with HC Plzen of the Czech Extraliga, per a team announcement. A fifth-round pick back in 2019, Has never rose above the ECHL level in the Washington organization, spending 2022-23 with the South Carolina Stingrays before his signing rights expired, making him a UFA. Has, 23, spent last season with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets, where the 6’4″ right-shot was limited to five points and a -14 rating in 62 games. The Czech native will now look to latch on in one of the premier European professional leagues.
  • It doesn’t appear that an NHL comeback is in the cards for Sven Andrighetto, as he’s inked a four-year extension with the Swiss National League club ZSC Lions. Andrighetto, 31, is a Zurich native, and he had 31 points in 40 games for his hometown club last year before leading them to an NL championship. The 2013 third-round pick of the Canadiens scored 31 goals and 83 points in 216 NHL games with Montreal and Colorado between 2014 and 2019.

International Notes: Mendel, Petrovsky, Bellerive

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Free agent defenseman Griffin Mendel is considering a move to Czechia’s Rytiri Kladno after failing to land a qualifying offer from the Hurricanes earlier this summer, sources tell Elite Prospects.

Mendel, 25, spent most of last season on loan to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves after signing a two-way contract with Carolina in July 2023. Undrafted, Mendel played four seasons of collegiate hockey at the University of Denver and played a fifth year for Quinnipiac before turning pro on an AHL deal with the Wolves in 2022. He impressed enough in his first professional season, playing in all 72 regular-season games alongside Carolina’s prospects and recording 19 points, to earn his first NHL pact.

But Mendel slipped out of an everyday role with the Wolves last season. The 6’6″, 220-lb defender was limited to 44 appearances, recording two goals, six assists, eight points, 35 PIMs, and a -9 rating. He spent a brief time on assignment to the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals, with whom the Hurricanes had a working agreement last season, posting six points and a +3 rating in eight games there.

Without much of a path to NHL time, he’ll look to carve out a role overseas. In doing so, he may join the long list of players to suit up alongside Jaromir Jagr professionally. The 52-year-old will return to Kladno for his eighth straight season since leaving the NHL in 2017. It’ll mark Jagr’s 37th straight season playing professionally, likely to last as a record for quite some time.

More updates from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean:

  • Former Wild forward prospect Servac Petrovsky has found a safety net for this season with Czechia’s Bili Tygri Liberec, where the club says he’s been participating in training camp and preseason on a tryout basis. Petrovsky, 20, was a sixth-round pick of Minnesota in 2022 but became a free agent in June after failing to land an entry-level contract following the close of his junior career with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. He might still have an opportunity to land an NHL contract, though, as the Czech club noted he’ll be attending rookie camp with the Utah Hockey Club in hopes of earning a deal. If he doesn’t, though, Liberec confirmed they’ll sign him for 2024-25. Petrovsky had 55 points in 57 games with Owen Sound last season and was electric at the 2024 World Juniors for his native Slovakia, leading them in scoring with five goals and four assists in five games.
  • After a tumultuous 2023-24 campaign, AHL mainstay Jordy Bellerive is continuing his career overseas with Sweden’s AIK, the club announced in a press release. The 25-year-old forward began last season on a contract with the Flyers’ affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but was traded twice during the season and ended up logging time with the San Jose Barracuda and the Syracuse Crunch. Once an undrafted free agent signing by the Penguins, Bellerive struggled to produce with just 12 points in 59 games across the three clubs. He hasn’t been affiliated with an NHL club since being non-tendered by Pittsburgh in 2022.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top