It’s about that time in the NHL offseason that veteran players start looking for opportunities overseas, and Paul Postma is just the latest to latch on with another club. The 29-year old defenseman has signed a one-year deal with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL.
Postma signed on with the Boston Bruins last season as a depth defenseman, but got into just a handful of games at both the NHL and AHL levels. That lack of playing time came after a 2016-17 season in which he finally started to prove he could be an NHL regular with the Winnipeg Jets, playing in 65 games while they dealt with an injury to Tyler Myers and a short holdout by Jacob Trouba. Originally selected by the Atlanta Thrashers in the seventh round of the 2007 draft, Postma had never played more than 42 games in an NHL season previously.
Those 14 games with Boston last year likely didn’t do much for his free agent market this summer, explaining why the right-handed defenseman had to head overseas to find work. In the KHL he should be provided a bigger opportunity, and he’s joining a club that is coming off a Gagarin Cup championship in the 2017-18 season. We’ll see if Posta can perform well enough to earn himself a pro job back in North America next offseason, or if he’ll stick around in the KHL for a while.
This reminds of NHL 17 where I signed Postma and other veterans for my fourth line. But this isn’t NHL 17, have a good year in the KHL bud.