Jack Kopacka Signs In ECHL

09/03/26: Kopacka has finalized his return to North American professional hockey. The former Ducks prospect has signed an ECHL deal with the Fort Wayne Komets, paving the way for him to play out 2026-27 in North America’s third tier.

Kopacka actually has just five games of ECHL experience on his resume, all coming from the 2019-20 season. That year, the 6’2″, 198-pound winger scored eight points in those five games, alongside 15 points in 37 AHL contests.

08/23/26: Jack Kopacka’s first stint in professional hockey didn’t yield an NHL opportunity so he opted to spend the last four years in Sweden.  Now, it appears that he’s looking to return to North America, according to Expressen’s Mattias Persson (subscription link).

The 28-year-old was a fourth-round pick by Anaheim back in 2016 and immediately followed up with back-to-back 30-goal seasons in the OHL to earn an entry-level contract.  However, production was harder to come by in their farm system.  Kopacka had 29 points in 69 games in two seasons with AHL San Diego before being moved to Ottawa as part of a three-way trade.  He struggled in their farm system, leading to a non-tender.  He spent one more year in the AHL in Toronto’s system before heading overseas to Sweden.

Kopacka spent two years in the second-tier Allsvenskan before his Brynas squad received a promotion to the SHL.  The 2024-25 campaign was a strong one as he picked up 18 goals and 16 assists in 52 games during the regular season and added eight points in 17 playoff contests.  However, things didn’t go as well last year as Kopacka was limited to just 14 points in 45 appearances.  Clearly, Kopacka was hoping that his performance the year before could help land him a deal closer to home.

Notably, Kopacka doesn’t qualify as a veteran player in the AHL.  Any skater entering the season with fewer than 320 professional games doesn’t get that designation.  His 130 AHL games count as do his 97 SHL outings but his 89 contests in the Allsvenskan don’t.  That should make it more palatable for Kopacka to try to land an opportunity in North America since teams won’t have to use one of their six game day veteran slots on him.

Even if a deal does materialize, with how things went last season, it wouldn’t be overly surprising if Kopacka had to settle for an AHL contract instead of a two-way NHL deal.  Even if that happened though, he could still be converted to an NHL contract in-season if his play warrants it.