A former member of the
Vancouver Canucks is heading overseas.
On Wednesday,
HC CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League announced that the team has signed forward Daniel Sprong to a one-year contract.
This will be Sprong’s first endeavor into the European ranks of professional hockey. He has spent his entire career in North America, coming up through the ranks with the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League before spending the past eight seasons in the NHL and American Hockey League.
Sprong’s tenure with the Canucks was brief and tumultuous. The Netherlands native signed a one-year, $975,000 contract with the team last July, hoping to bring some offensive punch to a team that had just won the Pacific Division the previous year. However,
his defensive woes on a team run by then-head coach Rick Tocchet were not going to fly. In early November,
Sprong was traded to the Seattle Kraken for future considerations after just nine games with Vancouver. He scored a goal and two assists for three points, with a plus/minus of -2 while averaging 11:39 of ice time with the Canucks.
Sprong continued to bounce around for the remainder of the 2024-25 season. After splitting time between the Kraken and their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the 28-year-old was traded to the New Jersey Devils for a 2026 seventh-round pick right before the trade deadline.
In total, Sprong appeared in 30 NHL games, scoring two goals and five assists for 7 points, with a -1 rating. He played in one playoff game for the Devils during their first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Across his eight years in the NHL, which saw him have stops with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings, Sprong has appeared in 374 regular-season games, scoring 87 goals and 79 assists for 166 points. In 14 Stanley Cup Playoff affairs, he notched a goal and three points.
Sprong joins a CSKA squad that is three seasons removed from winning back-to-back Gagarin Cups. However, Moscow has been bounced in the conference quarterfinals in each of the past two years.
