Ducks’ 2019 First-Round Pick Heads To Finland But “Has A Strong Desire To Return To North America” And NHL

Canadian center and left winger Brayden Tracey, 23, has signed a contract to play the remainder of the current season with Jukurit Mikkeli, the Finnish Liiga club announced on Saturday.

“We’ve been looking for reinforcements up front and now we have exactly the kind of player we’ve been looking for,” said Mikko Hakkarainen, Jukurit’s director of hockey operations. “Brayden is a very skilled, versatile forward who reads the game well. Brayden is a pure scorer who has shown that he can also produce results in the AHL.”

Born and raised in Calgary, Tracey played junior hockey for the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors and Victoria Royals.

Tracey was chosen in the first round, 29th overall, by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. However, he only ended up playing one NHL game with the Ducks, which came in the 2021-22 season. He recorded 84 points and 118 penalty minutes in 186 AHL games with the San Diego Gulls. 

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This season, he played four AHL games with the Bakersfield Condors, the top farm team of the Edmonton Oilers, on a PTO and was held pointless.

“Brayden has had a difficult start to the season, but we are offering a new start,” Hakkarainen continued. “He has a strong desire to return to North America and the NHL. We will do everything we can to help Brayden achieve that goal.”

Jukurit is currently last in the 16-team Liiga with just five regulation wins in 30 games. One of those wins was a season-opening 7-3 victory over HPK in which Max Ellis recorded a hat trick and Peter Abbandonato had four points. But while Abbandonato is the team’s co-scoring leader with 22 points, Ellis hasn’t played since late September, when he incurred a two-game suspension for head-butting, and was also reported to be battling the flu. He had seven points in six games previously.