The Montreal Canadiens rolled the dice on Alex Galchenyuk in the NHL Draft over a decade ago, and his winding career has finally sent him overseas.
The third overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, Galchenyuk showed all kinds of potential early on, but played just a handful of games in his draft season. He had zero points in two regular season games that season and returned for the postseason where he put up four points in six contests.
Galchenyuk had a few flashes of brilliance during his six year stint with the Canadiens to begin his NHL career, but he never turned into the big, first line center that the team was envisioning when he was drafted. He was eventually traded for Max Domi, and then became a National Hockey League nomad.
In the five seasons since Galchenyuk left Montreal, he has suited up for six different teams, including two separate stints with the Arizona Coyotes. He also had a short stopover in Carolina with the Hurricanes as well as a short stay with the Nashville Predators without ever playing for those two teams.
Galchenyuk was poised to join the Coyotes organization for a third time in 2023-24, but had his contract terminated after an incident involving the police. He was charged with several offences and later took a plea deal for a misdemeanour charge in an incident that involved accusations of hit and run, racial slurs and threats of violence toward a police officer.
Yesterday, it was announced by SKA St Petersburg that Galchenyuk will be joining the KHL. He has signed a two-year contract and will continue his hockey career in Russia. Though he had zero points in 11 NHL games last season, Galchenyuk did score 42 points in 42 games at the AHL level last season.
While the 29 year old is not centering the Canaidens top line in 2023-24 like we had hoped for when he was drafted, he could be a big scorer at the KHL level for St Petersburg.
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