Longtime NHL netminder Antti Raanta is in talks to join Swedish Hockey League club Linköping HC for 2025-26, Mattias Persson of Hockeynews.se reports. The 35-year-old Finn suited up for Genève-Servette in Switzerland this year after retiring from the NHL, posting a 2.74 GAA and .902 SV% in 24 games. The 2022 Jennings Trophy winner last played with the Hurricanes in 2023-24, a disastrous campaign that saw him land on waivers amid posting a .872 SV% in 24 games behind one of the league’s better defenses.
Here’s more on the international market:
- Former Avalanche and Devils defenseman Éric Gélinas is staying in Finland with Liiga club Luuko for another season, the team announced. Gélinas, now 33, will suit up for the same team in back-to-back years for the first time since a four-year run with Sweden’s Rögle BK from 2018 to 2022. The 6’4″, 227-lb lefty with a booming slapshot was limited by injury to 21 games with Lukko this season but managed 6-11–17 for his best per-game offensive showing in quite some time. A second-round pick of New Jersey in 2009, Gélinas had 14-41–55 in 189 career NHL games with them and Colorado from 2013 to 2017.
- Austria’s Vienna Capitals will not be renewing the contract of NHL veteran Joseph Cramarossa, the club announced earlier this week. Cramarossa, 32, signed on with the ICEHL club last offseason after parts of two seasons in Germany and posted 8-15–23 in 32 games. The center last touched NHL ice in 2022-23, suiting up four times for the Wild before they mutually terminated his contract for a mid-season move overseas. He has 5-8–13 in 68 NHL appearances with the Ducks, Canucks, and Wild – 59 of which came in the 2016-17 campaign.
Gelinas numbers actually werent that bad for a bottom pairing depth defenseman
Not at all. I always wondered why he didn’t get a longer look. He produced well when given power play time. His even-strength possession metrics were never bad, either, although in consistently sheltered minutes.