Veteran NHL forward signs in KHL

Veteran forward Brett Ritchie is headed overseas for the first time in his professional career, signing a one-year contract with Dynamo Minsk of the KHL.

The 30-year-old winger did not receive an NHL contract this summer, instead signing a PTO with the Florida Panthers. He spent training camp and preseason in Sunrise, but failed to earn a contract from the club.

A veteran of 391 NHL games, Ritchie was the 44th overall pick of the 2011 draft by the Dallas Stars, selected out of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.

After his OHL campaign concluded with a 76-point campaign on the Niagara IceDogs, Ritchie turned pro and had an exceptional AHL rookie season. He scored 29 goals and 59 points in 81 combined regular-season and playoff games, helping the Texas Stars win the Calder Cup.

Ritchie made his NHL debut the following season, in 2014-15, but only managed nine points in 31 games. Ritchie’s NHL breakthrough came in 2016-17, when he scored 16 goals in a full 78-game NHL season.

He had proven himself to be a capable NHL bottom-six winger, and he remained an NHL player exclusively (besides a 12-game AHL stint in 2019-20) through the 2022-23 season.

Ritchie will not be an NHLer this season, though, as rather than potentially sign an AHL deal with a pathway to an NHL contract (the pathway Joel Kiviranta successfully took with the Colorado Avalanche, for example) Ritchie has elected to play in the KHL.

He joins a Minsk team currently 14-12-4, sitting seventh in their conference standings. A look at Minsk’s scoresheet paints the picture as to why they might have gone out and signed a big-name former NHLer import player such as Ritchie. Their top scorer, AHL veteran Sam Anas, has scored just 18 points in 29 games.

They could very much use another winger with NHL experience beyond former Anaheim Duck Sam Volkov, so Ritchie fills that role. While it’s no guarantee Ritchie will be productive in the KHL, his consistent scoring success at the AHL level suggests he may be able to fill a scoring power forward’s role against KHL competition.

If he does so and posts a productive campaign in Belarus, one shouldn’t rule out the possibility Ritchie receives another chance to earn an NHL contract.