Svatos Heading To Omsk On One Year Deal

Marek Svatos burst into the NHL as a rookie back during the 2005-06 campaign with the Colorado Avalanche and posted 32 goals in 61 games. Unfortunately, he was unable to join his team during the nine postseason games the Avs played that year, as well as the final 19 regular season games, thanks to a right shoulder injury. And thus began the frustrating career of Svatos in the NHL.

A young Slovakian native with offensive potential capable of netting him perennial in 30-goal seasons would never be able to truly shake a rash of injuries that prevented him from playing more than 69 games in any particular season.

Now 28 years of age after spending all six of his NHL seasons in Colorado, the unrestricted free agent was unable to find a home during the offseason with the Avs or any other club in the league. Perhaps teams are hesistant about throwing a large sum of cash toward a player that always misses a healthy amount of games and only managed seven goals in the ones he did play just a year ago.

With no options in the NHL, Svatos has decided to join the Kontinental Hockey League and signed up with Omsk for a one year deal, according to TSN. The KHL is notorious for taking any player from the NHL with any semblance of name value and Svatos certainly fits the bill.

For Svatos' benefit, the one year pact enables him to seek a return to the NHL next summer if he's able to prove he can go a season without any major injuries and puts up some goals like he did during his rookie campaign five years ago.