Poor Nicklas Grossmann. It looks like he’s stuck in North America during the rest of the NHL lockout.
As reported by Expressen last week, Grossmann’s old Swedish club Södertälje SK has been trying to find the funds to cover Grossmann’s insurance costs. Players heading to Europe during the lockout must pay to insure their NHL contracts, and with Grossmann just signing a new deal with the Flyers this past fall, his insurance is quite expensive.
For most of these guys, the costs of covering their insurance is prohibitive to actually playing overseas. They lose money as a result. So when the club trying to acquire their services can’t cover the insurance for them, they opt not to play at all. That’s apparently the case with Grossmann.
A new report from Expressen this Monday says that SSK can’t find the money to fund the insurance and that Grossmann most likely won’t be joining the club. Here’s the translation via our friend Bill Meltzer:
“We don’t have the money, and I don’t know if there can be a turn-around [to the situation].”
Matt Read, meanwhile, is currently playing for SSK. He’s scored 10 points in five games with the club so far. Rangers forward Carl Hagelin is also playing with Read in Södertälje.
