The Columbus Blue Jackets released James Neal from his professional tryout a few days ago, and now Victor Rask has joined him on the free agent market. The veteran forward’s PTO has come to an end without an NHL contract, meaning he’ll have to find another place to play this season.
Rask, 29, played in 47 games last season, splitting time between the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken. It was the end of a six-year, $24M contract that he signed in 2016 with the Carolina Hurricanes, one that turned into one of the worst deals in the league as Rask went from solid middle-six center to barely even a fourth-line contributor.
Now, released from a PTO, there should be legitimate questions over whether his NHL career will continue at all. Selected in the second round back in 2011, Rask has more than 500 games of NHL experience and could potentially find a landing spot as injuries start to pile up around the league, but a departure for Europe seems more likely. The Swedish forward hasn’t played there in a decade, but at this point, it might be the SHL or the AHL, unless a new team emerges for his services in the next few days.
If it is the end of his days in the NHL, he still scored 223 points at the highest level, including a career-high 21 goals and 48 points in 2015-16.
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