Finnish goaltender Antti Raanta, 35, has signed a one-year contract with Genève-Servette HC, the Swiss National League club announced on Monday.
Raanta had spent the past 11 seasons in North America, mostly in the NHL, but he recently announced that he had decided that the remainder of his career would be spent in Europe.
“I played 11 years in the NHL. Now is a good time to return to Europe with my family,” he said at the time in an interview with Finnish media outlet Ilta-Sanomat. “Every other day, the wife sees on Instagram, when the wife of someone playing in Switzerland has updated pictures from there, and how great it looks there.”
Switzerland is indeed his destination, with Genève goaltender Gauthier Descloux was injured this past weekend, and Raanta is set to come in to work in tandem with Robert Mayer until he returns. Raanta has signed for the full season, so no word on who the odd man out will be upon Descloux’s return.
Originally from Rauma, Finland, Raanta grew up and turned pro with local club Lukko until 2011. He also played two Liiga seasons for Ässät before going to North America in 2013. Over the next 11 seasons, he played 277 NHL regular-season games and 24 playoff games for the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Arizona Coyotes and Carolina Hurricanes.
This past season, he played 24 games with Carolina and eight with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. The possibility of returning to the AHL was one of the factors that caused him to return to Europe.
Genève has already played two National League regular-season games, losing both. They’ve also played four Champions Hockey League games so far, winning two and losing two. Genève finished 10th in the National League last season but qualified for the CHL this season by winning the European club competition last season.
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