- Ryan Spooner has signed a one-year deal with HK Dukla Trencin of the Slovak Extraliga
- The 34-year-old fills Trencin’s last import spot after seven seasons in the KHL
- Read below for what pulled Spooner out of Russia, plus video of his best NHL season
Ryan Spooner is done with Russia.
He signed a one-year deal with HK Dukla Trencin of the Slovak Extraliga, the club announced Wednesday, filling the last import spot on the roster.
Spooner talked with Dukla head coach Todd Woodcroft about the move over the summer and came away thinking it fit. Seven years in Russia was enough, and he wanted something new.
Woodcroft is the brother of former Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. He took the Trencin job in May after a season as an assistant with Slovakia’s national team, Olympics included.
Sporting director Branko Radivojevic said the club made its first contact with Spooner back in May. In comments published by Dukla and translated from Slovak, Radivojevic called him a world-class forward with Swiss, KHL and NHL experience, and said he expects Spooner to be one of the team’s leaders once the paperwork clears next week.
Boston drafted Spooner 45th overall in 2010. His NHL career covered 325 games over seven seasons, with 48 goals and 119 assists for 167 points split between the Bruins, Rangers, Oilers and Canucks.
The 2015-16 season was the high point. Spooner put up 13 goals and 49 points in 80 games and finished fifth on the Bruins in scoring.
Here’s every goal he scored that year:
That run ended in 2018, when Boston included him in the package for Rick Nash. New York flipped him to Edmonton for Ryan Strome that fall, and the Oilers shipped him to Vancouver for Sam Gagner a few months later. He hasn’t played an NHL game since 2018-19.
Check out the overtime winner he scored against Montreal in his Boston days:
Europe treated him better. Spooner piled up 82 goals and 204 assists in 346 KHL games with Dinamo Minsk, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, Shanghai and Avangard Omsk, adding 14 points in 32 playoff games. Short stops in Lugano and Lausanne filled the gaps.
Traffic on that road runs both ways this summer. Kevin Hayes signed with Ak Bars Kazan in August, going to the league Spooner just left.
Dukla plays an exhibition against the Vienna Capitals on Saturday. Spooner isn’t expected in the lineup until the week after that.
