- Dinamo Minsk has UFA winger Adam Erne on its offseason shortlist
- Erne played 45 games for Dallas last season on a league-minimum deal
- Read below for what a KHL move would mean for the 31-year-old’s NHL future
Adam Erne might be taking his game overseas.
The unrestricted free agent winger has landed on Dinamo Minsk’s radar, with the KHL club listing him among the players it wants to add for next season. Sport-Express reporter Artur Khairullin passed along the interest, as relayed by Pro Hockey Rumors.
Erne spent last season in Dallas after signing a one-year, two-way deal worth the league minimum of $775,000 out of a training camp tryout. He stuck on the NHL roster all year and got into 45 games.
The 31-year-old finished with six goals and two assists to go with 141 hits, averaging about ten minutes a night. A lower-body injury cost him five weeks on long-term injured reserve, and he made one playoff appearance.
That marks the second straight summer Erne has taken the tryout-to-contract route just to land a job. Going that path again clearly isn’t his first choice, and a guaranteed KHL deal would hand him the security he hasn’t found in North America.
Take a look at what Erne brought during his run with the Oilers:
There’s a catch. Signing in Minsk would likely close the book on his NHL days. Erne has 424 games across nine seasons with Tampa Bay, Detroit, Edmonton and Dallas, plus 47 goals, 52 assists and 1,021 hits.
He came up as a second-round pick of the Lightning in 2013 and spent his longest stretch in Detroit, where he played four seasons before short stops in Edmonton and Dallas.
The market for depth forwards is thin this deep into July, and Erne isn’t the only veteran still waiting on a deal. Kane and Laine headline the names still on the board.
Erne has a few weeks to decide whether he wants to reciprocate Minsk’s interest or hold out for one more NHL shot.
