July 23: Djurgarden officially announced Hudon’s signing this morning. It’s a two-year contract, keeping him with the club through the 2026-27 season.
July 22: Minor-league scoring winger Charles Hudon is heading overseas for the second time in his career. Expressen’s Johan Svensson relays that the veteran forward is expected to join Djurgardens IF of the Swedish Hockey League in the coming days.
Hudon, 31, hasn’t been on an NHL contract or played an NHL game since going pointless in nine appearances with the Avalanche in 2022-23. He’s spent the last two seasons with the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, on a minor-league deal.
In Ontario, the 5’10” Hudon has continued to produce at an elite level, clicking at nearly a point per game with a 40-78–118 scoring line in 123 games. A fifth-round pick in 2012 by the Canadiens, Hudon has always been an electric scorer at the AHL level, posting 426 points in 503 games there in parts of nine seasons, but has rarely managed to stick around in an NHL lineup despite playing a physical game and logging average possession impacts when given the chance.
Hudon has 134 NHL games to his name, 125 of which came with Montreal. More than half of those were as a 23-year-old in the 2017-18 campaign, when he recorded a career-high 10 goals, 20 assists, and 30 points in 72 games for the Habs while averaging 14:02 per contest. He didn’t stick around in a top-nine role the following year, though, only scoring five points in 32 games before essentially falling off the NHL radar.
The Quebec native last played in Europe during the COVID-laced 2020-21 campaign, scoring 32 points in 33 games for Switzerland’s Lausanne HC. He’ll now join a Djurgarden team looking to make waves in the SHL after gaining promotion from the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan.
