Free agent center Chris Tierney has signed a one-year deal in the Kontinental Hockey League with Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk, the team announced Monday on Telegram.
Tierney, 30, was one of three UFA centers remaining who logged significant NHL time last season and the only one who wasn’t in an NHL training camp on a professional tryout. He was a serviceable fourth-line piece for the Devils last season, recording 12 points in 52 games with a +3 rating while averaging a career-low 9:02 per game, winning 57.2% of his draws.
A second-round pick of the Sharks back in 2012, Tierney grew into a full-time NHLer down the stretch of his first professional season two years later and never looked back. Within a few years, he was one of the league’s premier third-line centers, capping off his tenure in San Jose with a career-high 17 goals and 40 points in 2017-18.
The Sharks traded Tierney to the Senators the following offseason in the blockbuster swap that sent Erik Karlsson to the Bay Area. Early on, Tierney was a serviceable middle-six piece for Ottawa, averaging north of 17 minutes per game during his first two seasons in the Canadian capital and averaging 0.56 points per game.
But after the pandemic hit, Tierney’s offense dropped off. He was limited to only 12 goals and 37 points in 125 contests over the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns while seeing his ice time drop accordingly. Following the expiry of a two-year, $7MM contract, Tierney had to settle for a two-way deal with the Panthers for 2022-23. He split his brief tenure in Florida between the Panthers and their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, before he was claimed off waivers by the Canadiens in February. He finished out the year with seven points in 23 games for Montreal, doing well to rebuild his stock somewhat and stick in the NHL with New Jersey last season.
He wasn’t so lucky this summer, though. With presumably no NHL offers, the Ontario native lands in Minsk to continue his career. He becomes the eighth player with NHL experience on Dinamo’s roster, joining Dillon Dubé, Jordan Gross, Dmitry Korobov, Nicolas Meloche, Xavier Ouellet, Vadim Shipachyov, and Alexander Volkov.
If this marks the end of Tierney’s NHL career, he finishes with 80 goals, 168 assists, 248 points, and a -70 rating in 649 regular-season games.
Tierney has always been an incredibly frustrating player. Like the dude has so much talent, he’ll pick someone’s pocket and speed down the ice… Only to either blow a tire or completely whiff a shot. Maybe the K can be where he finally refines his game.