After 5 seasons of towing the blue line in the AHL 25-year old Montreal Canadiens‘ 2nd round pick in the 2006 draft (#53 overall), Mathieu Carle(27) reportedly will leave North American hockey for some Russian action with Dinamo Riga in the KHL in 2012/2013. He would have been a restricted agent with Anaheim Ducks in line for a qualifying offer.
He’s appeared in 296 AHL games with Hamilton Bulldogs before he was traded and reassigned last season to Syracuse Crunch.
The 6’0 206 lbs. d-man is almost always an effective plus player on the ice, this season notching a +7. He also had career highs in games played (72), assists (31) and points (37).
He’s only ever appeared in 3 NHL games with the Canadiens but you know what? He went a +1. Good luck to him.
Original story: 5/6-12
He would play most of the 2012/2013 season in the KHL but very close to the end of his first visit overseas signed to play the remainder of the year in the Swiss’ NLA with Geneve Survette HC and even skated 7 postseason games helping out on three assists.
For the next pair of years he had pretty good success heading back to Russia under contract with Medvescak Zagreb. In 81 games he had 5 goals and 31 assists.
As he enters his 9th pro season he trades in one country for another on a third occasion and will try his hand in DEL with Adler Mannheim.
The pretty tough guy defensive styled game the 28-year old plays should do quite well here.