Czech defenseman Jakub Kindl, 38, has signed a one-year contract with les Boxers de Bordeaux, the Ligue Magnus club announced on Wednesday.

Kindl played just 13 regular-season and playoff games last season for Joensuun Kiekko-Pojat in the Mestis, Finland’s second division of professional hockey.

Originally from Šumperk, Czechia, Kindl played junior hockey in Pardubice and then with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL, where he was a two-time league all-star. He was drafted in the first round, 17th overall, by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.

Between 2009 and 2017, the 6-foot-3, 198-pound Kindl played 331 NHL regular season games with the Red Wings and Florida Panthers, recording 74 points and 181 penalty minutes. He added an additional five points in 20 playoff games – 19 of which were for Detroit.

Since returning to Europe in 2017, Kindl played two seasons in Czechia with Plzeň and one in Germany with Kölner Haie but has since played irregularly. After taking the 2021-22 season off, he played one more season in Plzeň and spent the last two in Norway playing for the Storhamar Dragons.

Internationally, Kindl represented Czechia at two IIHF World Junior Championships and at the 2014 Worlds in Minsk, Belarus.

Kindl joins a Bordeaux squad that includes winger Baptiste Bruche and goaltender Quentin Papillon from the French national team.

Bordeaux has played in the Ligue Magnus since 2015 and has only become a league power in the past couple seasons, reaching the finals in 2023-24 and the semifinals last year.

Pierre-Édouard Bellemare Says France Had 'Terrible First Period' Against Canada; Looks Ahead To Slovakia Group A of the 2025 IIHF World Championship in Stockholm is interesting. It’s dominated by Canada and Sweden and, at this point, Slovenia looks like the team that will be relegated. Finland will probably advance but doesn’t look like a lock, and the other three teams – Latvia, Austria, Slovakia and France – are all fighting for one, maybe two spots. That makes Wednesday’s game between Slovakia and France a big one.