After being bought out by the New Jersey Devils this offseason, Janne Kuokkanen is headed overseas. The free agent forward has signed a one-year deal with Fribourg-Gotteron of the Swiss National League.
Kuokkanen, 24, will earn $325K from the Devils in each of the next two seasons thanks to a buyout that gave him an opportunity to go elsewhere. It is somewhat surprising that the elsewhere he chose is overseas, given his regular place in the NHL the last two seasons, but it certainly doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of him.
Selected 43rd overall in 2016, the Finnish forward played in 57 games for the Devils this season, recording six goals and 17 points. While the $1.825MM cap hit that he would have carried this year may seem like a lot, there is likely at least some value to squeeze out of him for a lower cost. We’ll see if that happens next year, when he will still be young enough to qualify for restricted free agency–meaning a team signing him to a one-year deal in the summer of 2023 would actually be buying another year of control past that.
This might be a particularly appealing scenario if he performs well at the Swiss level, a league that is drawing more and more in-their-prime foreigners for its increasing competitiveness.