Buffalo Sabres Jason Pominville signs with Mannheim Eagles -NHL Lockout Update
Jason Pominville, captain of the Buffalo Sabres franchise, has reportedly signed on with the German ice hockey club, Mannheim Eagles, which is one of the renowned teams in Germany and where Buffalo played last season during an overseas exhibition series.
Pominville is expected to take off to join the club, along with his family, sometime next week with Monday being reported as the day and could be playing sometime in the next couple of days or so.
“When we played there it was really fun,” Pominville said by phone Friday, according to Buffalo News. “The crowd was great. I think it’s one of the best places to play in Germany. They treat their players really nice.”
It has also been learned that Pominville was watching negotiations between the National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association closely, but has finally decided that playing abroad seems to be the only viable option at the moment due to the ice cold deadlock between both stakeholders at the moment, which only seems to be getting worse.
“The timing is right for me and for them,” Pominville went on to say. “I just want to play. We’ve been fortunate our skates at Northtown Center have been good. We’ve got a pretty good group of guys, but there’s nothing like playing games and having organized, structured practices. That’s basically why I decided to go now.”
Pominville is a 30-year-old veteran right winger who was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres as the 55th overall back in round-two of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. He has played eight career seasons with his original draft team and boasts a career record of 541 games played with 431 points, 175 goals and 256 assists along with 139 minutes in the penalty box.
The Repentigny, Quebec, Canada, native is also locked on to the Buffalo Sabres at the moment with a five-year contract which was signed back in 2009-2010, giving him a total of $26.5 million and will making him an unrestricted free agent by the end of the 2013-2014 regular season.
It will definitely be interesting to follow the Buffalo Sabres captain abroad with the German club.
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