It seemed the other day as though Claude Giroux was ready to head to Europe during this lockout. He said he was “bored” waiting around for the work stoppage to end and that he was itching to play some real hockey. Well, it seems as though he’s about to sign with a foreign club.
According to Sport Express in Russia, Giroux is in talks with Avangard Omsk, a team in the KHL’s Eastern Conference. The Google translation is hilarious and thus we will share it with you.
Most interesting is that the vacant after the departure Shkouly place Legionnaire will come soon one of the star players in the NHL with a foreign passport. According to our data, the list of candidates for the completion of the “Vanguard” could be the envy of even the army club in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The story goes on to say that Phoenix’s Martin Hanzal, Colorado’s Ryan O’Reilly and have all been in talks with Omsk. Giroux would clearly be the best player in that bunch. We’ll see if a deal gets done.
If he signs in the KHL, Giroux would be just the second Canadian player to defect to Russia following Evander Kane’s signing with Dinamo Minsk. Most North American-born players have signed with teams in Switzerland, including most recently today John Tavares from the Islanders.
Jaromir Jagr played with Avangard Omsk prior to returning to the NHL with the Flyers last season, so it’s possible that he passed Giroux the recommendation.
