Former NHLer and Olympian Linden Vey has signed to play next season with Avangard Omsk, the KHL club announced on Saturday.

“We wanted to see Linden with our team before the 2023-24 trade deadline, but Adler Mannheim refused the contract termination and the transfer. Since the forward has fulfilled all the obligations to his former club, nothing prevents him from concluding a contract with Avangard,” said Omsk GM Anton Kuryanov.

Vey, 32, is a native of Wakaw, Sask. and played junior hockey for the Medicine Hat Tigers. He played 138 NHL games for the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames between 2013 and 2017 but has played overseas ever since.

Vey's career has included two tours of duty with Barys Astana, the KHL’s Kazakhstan-based club, and stops with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland and CSKA Moscow before spending 2023-24 in Germany with Mannheim. In the DEL this past season, Vey recorded 39 points in 38 regular-season games and added seven more points in seven playoff games. A playmaking center, all but eight of his combined points with Mannheim were assists.

“When summing up the results of the season, we mentioned the areas we want to improve,” Kuryanov continued. “Vey will add versatility and skills to our center group. He is a highly skilled right-handed center, who has proven his worth through his career, and specifically in playoff games.”

Avangard went out in the second round of this season’s Gagarin Cup playoffs after finishing second in the Eastern Conference. Vey is one of only four players the team has under contract for next season already – the others being American winger Reid Boucher, Belarusian winger Igor Martynov and Russian defenceman Artyom Chmykhov.

Internationally, Vey was reunited with Willie Desjardins, his coach from Vancouver, while playing for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Vey recorded one assist in six games en route to the bronze medal.