Former Ducks second-round pick latest NHLer to bolt to the KHL

There’s been a mini-mass exodus of players leaving the NHL to join the Russian Kontinental Hockey League this offseason, and former Anaheim Ducks second-round pick Maxime Comtois is the latest one.

On Thursday morning, HC Dynamo Moscow officially announced it had signed Comtois for the 2024-25 season.

“Maxime Comtois is a fast, powerful striker,” Dynamo head coach Alexey Kudashov said . “Of course, he must strengthen the first two attacking lines. Not afraid to work in every area of the site. Great professional. At training camp, he will already work with the team.”

Comtois was the 50th overall pick in 2017, but he never really found a role in his five seasons in Anaheim. His best year came during the COVID-shortened 2020 season when he notched 16 goals and 33 points in 55 games. But compared to the rest of his tenure, his production that year seemed more of an outlier than anything else.

Comtois signed a professional tryout deal with the Vegas Golden Knights last offseason but failed to make the team out of training camp.

He signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (he scored 19 goals and 44 points in 65 games) and signed a one-year deal for the rest of the season with the Carolina Hurricanes in March, though he appeared in just one game and tallied an assist.

Not tendered a qualifying offer by Carolina, Comtois followed in the footsteps of Evgeny Kuznetsov, Egor Afanasyev, Wade Allison, Rourke Chartier, Ruslan Iskhakov and Steven Kampfer as NHL/AHLers to leave for Russia.