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Olli Jokinen is reportedly leaving the NHL and heading to Europe to play for Dynamo Minsk in the KHL.
Free agent forward Olli Jokinen is heading overseas. He'll be playing in the KHL next season with Dynamo Minsk, according to Alessandro Seren Rosso, Russian hockey reporter at Hockey's Future.
The unrestricted free agent was traded from the Calgary Flames to the New York Rangers at the NHL trade deadline this past season largely due to his hefty $5.25 million salary cap hit. In 82 games between the two clubs this season, Jokinen only had 15 goals and 35 assists -- a far cry from the near-40 goal seasons he pulled in from 2005 to 2008 while with the Florida Panthers.
The KHL is slowly but quietly pulling players away from the the NHL -- the list includes names such as Alexander Radulov and Jaromir Jagr -- but perhaps the saddest aspect of Jokinen's departure from the North American hockey scene is that we won't get to see this tutorial on how to draw Olli that often.
For more on his departure, check out SBN's Blueshirt Banter, where the cover Jokinen's last team, the New York Rangers.
Optionless Olli Heading To KHL?
A tragic fall for one of the league's finer centers of only a few seasons ago, the former Panthers captain finds no market for services in North America. How far has Jokinen fell?
For more on this, please visit our Panthers' site, Litter Box Cats.
May 05 8:01p
by Donny Rivette
of Litter Box Cats
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