Canadian right winger Christian Thomas, 32, has been released from his contract with Bílí Tygři Liberec, the Czech Extraliga club announced on Tuesday.
Thomas, the son of long-time NHLer Steve Thomas and brother-in-law of current NHLer Adam Henrique, signed as a free agent with Liberec in the off-season. In 16 games with the team, however, Thomas produced just one assist and was a minus-6.
Liberec currently sits last in the 14-team Extraliga with just three regular-season wins in 17 games.
“Neither the club nor the player himself was satisfied with the current situation, which is why we decided to take this step,” said Liberec coach Filip Pešan. “Although we are in a personnel crisis, Christian, as one of the expected leaders, has not lived up to expectations. So we’ve decided to free him for an opportunity elsewhere.”
Czech website Hokej.cz is speculating that Thomas might return to the ICEHL, where he had two productive seasons with the Italian-based Bolzano Foxes.
Thomas, who played junior hockey for the OHL’s London Knights and Oshawa Generals, was a second-round draft pick of the New York Rangers in 2010. In six years of professional hockey in North America between 2012 and 2018, Thomas played 27 NHL games for the Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Arizona Coyotes, scoring a goal and adding two assists.
In 2018, while playing for the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Thomas was chosen to play for the Canadian team at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang – which the NHL did not break for. He tallied a goal and an assist in six games, helping Canada to a bronze medal.
Thomas has played in Europe ever since then, for Rögle BK in Sweden, Traktor Chelyabinsk in Russia, SC Bern in Switzerland, KooKoo in Finland, Barys Astana in Kazakhstan, Bern again, Bolzano and Liberec.