Finnish Ex-NHLer Signs In Slovakia

Finnish right winger Teemu Pulkkinen, 32, has signed a contract to play the remainder of the season with HK Poprad, the Slovak Extraliga team announced on Monday.

Pulkkinen started the season playing in Germany for the Schwenninger Wild Wings.

“We have been working on strengthening the squad and we are happy that we have agreed on a contract with Teemu until the end of the season,” said Poprad sports director Július Koval. “He’s a scorer and we will expect goals from him. I welcome him to Poprad and wish him all the best.”

A fourth-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2010, Pulkkinen joined the club three years later at the tail end of the 2012-13 AHL season. He then spent the next three seasons in the Detroit organization before moving on to the Minnesota Wild and finally the Vegas Golden Knights, with whom he only played pre-season games. All told, Pulkkinen played 83 NHL games, scoring 13 goals and recording nine assists and 32 penalty minutes.

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In six KHL seasons, Pulkkinen had 185 points in 319 games with Dinamo Minsk, Dynamo Moscow, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Traktor Chelyabinsk and Kunlun Red Star.

He signed as a free agent in late August with the Schwenninger Wild Wings of the German DEL but played only 22 games with that club, scoring four goals and adding seven assists and 12 penalty minutes while going minus-5. His last game was Dec. 1.

Pulkkinen joins a Poprad team that sits eighth in the 12-team Slovak Extraliga with 37 points in 27 games, having lost four in a row prior to the international break. The team’s roster includes fellow ex-NHL import Adam Cracknell.

At the same time as announcing the Pulkkinen signing, Poprad also announced it was parting ways with Canadian right winger Wade Murphy.