July 15: The league confirmed a one-year deal for Froese with Lokomotiv today.
July 13: After predominantly playing at the AHL level for the past several years, it appears that free agent center Byron Froese has decided it’s time to try something different. Sport-Express’ Mikhail Zizlis reports that the veteran is set to sign a one-year deal with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL.
The 33-year-old spent the last two seasons on a two-way contract with the Golden Knights. Last season, Froese got into 16 games with Vegas but wasn’t particularly productive, collecting only a single assist while winning nearly 56% of his faceoffs in 10:40 of playing time per game. He also got into 53 contests with AHL Henderson, notching 13 goals and 18 assists.
Over his 13-year professional career, Froese has played in 141 NHL games between five different teams, recording 20 points. But in the minors, he has been much more of an impactful scorer, tallying 140 goals and 172 assists in 513 appearances with eight different teams.
Froese could plausibly have opted to play a similar role for the upcoming season, one that saw him play a big role in the minors while being an NHL-capable recall to cover minutes on the fourth line. But after years of being in that same role, he’ll now head overseas and should be able to play big minutes for the full season. If things don’t go as well over there as he’s likely hoping for, Froese could easily return to North America for 2025-26 and go back to the role he has had for the last decade, so even with this news, this might not be the last we see of Froese in the NHL.