BREAKING: Former Top-10 Pick Kicked Off His New Team
2023-24 has not been a good season for Nick Ritchie. The one-time 10th overall pick could not find any NHL teams to sign him before the season started, so Ritchie headed to Europe to play in the Finnish Elite League. After just 10 games, he's not playing there anymore, either.
Former NHLer Gets Dumped by New Team
You may recall that Ritchie was suspended by SM-Liiga in December for eight games while playing with Karpat. This was after an incident involving TPS Turku's Markus Nurmi. Both Ritchie and Nurmi were in the corner battling for the puck when Ritchie, seemingly unhappy that he'd lost the battle, pushed Nurmi to the ice, grabbed the back of his head, and starting punching him repeatedly.
Ritchie's suspension ended this week. However, he won't be returning to Karpat. The team released an official statement today saying Ritchie needs to find another hockey club to play for.
"Kärpät cannot offer Ritchie a big enough role in the team for the rest of the season, so he is free to look for a place to play elsewhere. When he came up, we knew he was a high risk / high reward style card that we thought was worth a look. However, he was not able to rise to the role that we would have needed him to play." - Karpat Sports Director Mikko Myllykoski
The team did not say whether the incident with Nurmi played a factor in its decision, or whether it was simply a matter of not living up to expectations. Ritchie had played 10 games before being suspended, scoring 1 goal and adding 4 assists. For a veteran of 481 regular season NHL games, that's not a great showing for the Finnish Elite League. Karpat indicated that Ritchie, 28, would not be playing for them while he found a new team to sign with.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 23 | 94 ANSWERS BREAKING: Former Top-10 Pick Kicked Off His New Team Do you think Ritchie will find a new pro team to play with? | ||
| Yes | 33 | 35.1 % |
| No | 41 | 43.6 % |
| Not sure | 20 | 21.3 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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