Veteran NHL center Curtis Lazar signed a one-year contract with HC Lausanne, a club that competes in the Swiss National League. The signing marks Lazar’s first foray into European professional hockey.
The 31-year-old was a 2013 first-round pick of the Ottawa Senators who generated a lot of attention from NHL scouts during his days as a star WHL forward for the Edmonton Oil Kings. Lazar was a top prospect, winning two WHL Championships and a Memorial Cup in Edmonton.
While Lazar never quite panned out as a potential scoring forward in the NHL, he was able to hold down a steady NHL roster spot for about a decade, and he was an All-Star in his lone full season spent in the AHL.
The British Columbia native played in a total of 617 NHL games across seven different teams. He was generally used as a bottom-six energy checking forward, leveraging his bravery and relentless compete level to earn the trust of coaches.
Lazar averaged 11:43 time on ice per game in his career, taking a regular shift on the penalty kill. Lazar spent last season as a member of Kris Knoblauch’s Edmonton Oilers, serving as a spare forward for the team.
In 45 regular-season games, Lazar produced just six points, and the 8:55 time on ice per game he averaged was considerably below what he had averaged just two years earlier with the New Jersey Devils. (12:23 per game) Now, Lazar will get to try his luck in the European circuit, joining a group that includes other former NHLers such as Colin Miller, Erik Brannstrom, Drake Caggiula, and Austin Czarnik.
Lazar previously played with Miller in New Jersey and with the Buffalo Sabres.
Other signings from outside the NHL:
Former Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks winger Pavol Regenda returned to European professional hockey, signing a contract with HV71 of the SHL. The 26-year-old was an undrafted import signing from the Slovak league by the Ducks in the summer of 2022, inking an entry-level deal with the club after he scored 39 points in 43 games at the highest level of pro hockey in his home country.
While Regenda wasn’t able to carve out a role in the NHL, scoring 10 goals and 13 points in 43 games across two teams and three seasons, he did prove himself capable of producing some secondary offense in the AHL. The 6’3″ winger, who is a regular member of Slovakia’s senior men’s national team, has scored 49 goals and 112 points in 204 career AHL games, and now joins an SHL squad that begins league play in two days against the Malmö Redhawks.
The AHL’s Charlotte Checkers signed prospect defenseman Matyas Man to a one-year, two-way AHL contract, per a team announcement. The 20-year-old undrafted defenseman played in the WHL last season, scoring 13 points in 53 games for the Prince Albert Raiders.
He also played 20 postseason games for the club as they made a run to the WHL Finals. A 6’5″, 202-pound left-shot blueliner, Man won a silver medal at the most recent IIHF World Junior Championships with his native Czechia.
Elite Prospects scout Daniel Gee wrote in a January game report that Man “has the measurables, skating, and physicality to play on a bottom pairing in the NHL,” and now Man will begin his professional career in the AHL with the Panthers’ minor-league affiliates.