- Massimo Rizzo signs with Kalmar HC of Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan for 2026-27
- Kalmar GM Daniel Stolt says the club asked earlier in the summer and got turned down
- Read below for the three trades that moved Rizzo in four months
Kalmar HC wanted Massimo Rizzo earlier this summer. He told the Swedish club no.
That answer did not hold. Kalmar announced Tuesday that the 25-year-old Canadian forward had agreed to a contract for the 2026-27 season, and general manager Daniel Stolt walked through how it came together. He started with the rejection.
“Massimo is an offensively minded player with an interesting background. He played on a good college team and was a driving player on it. His name came up at an early stage, but at that point we got a no. We are glad he changed his mind and we look forward to counting him in our squad.”
Here is Kalmar’s announcement:
Rizzo spoke about the move in that same release.
“I am super pumped to join the club, get over there and help this fantastic team this season. I have heard a lot of good things about the team, the fans and the city, and I am really looking forward to getting started.”
Both quotes come by way of the club’s Swedish-language announcement.
The road to Sweden’s second division ran through a lot of NHL org charts. Carolina drafted the Burnaby, B.C. native 216th overall in 2019, near the very bottom of the seventh round.
Denver is where he made his name. Rizzo won two national championships with the Pioneers, in 2022 and 2024, piled up 126 points in 107 college games and earned Western All-American second team honors.
Carolina never signed him. The Hurricanes shipped his rights and a 2025 fifth-round pick to Philadelphia for the rights to David Kase in August 2023, and Rizzo inked his entry-level deal with the Flyers the following April.
Last season turned into a scavenger hunt. He opened 2025-26 in the ECHL with Reading, then Philadelphia sent him to Boston on March 6. Six days later the Bruins flipped him to Nashville.
Nashville moved him one more time in June, sending Rizzo and the 148th pick to the Rangers in the Adam Edstrom deal. New York never tendered him a contract.
His pro line reads 60 AHL games and 23 points, eight goals and 15 assists. Last season in the ECHL he put up 22 points in 29 games. He also skated for Canada at the 2023-24 Spengler Cup and picked up two assists in four games there.
Twelve forwards were already signed in Kalmar before Tuesday. Stolt said the group had room for one more, and the one they wanted was the guy who had already turned them down.
