By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Brian Gionta will be signing an NHL contract in the coming days, perhaps before the weekend is over but definitely before Monday’s roster freeze deadline.
His agent, Steve Bartlett of Sports Consulting Group, said on Friday night that he has essentially finalized a deal with a playoff-bound team.
Bartlett would not divulge the destination but it is assumed that team is in the Eastern Conference. The Boston Bruins would certainly seem to be a possibility, since they had interest in the 39-year-old right winger before the season.
There’s a chance the Philadelphia Flyers or even the Toronto Maple Leafs may have some interest. Gionta, a lifelong resident of Greece, played the first eight years of his professional career with the New Jersey Devils when Lou Lamoriello was general manager. Lamoriello is now GM of the Maple Leafs.
Since Gionta’s season-long plan was to sign with a bona fide Stanley Cup contender after the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, the only other possible landing spots in the East would seem to be the Tampa Bay Lightning (who are chasing Erik Karlsson, not a forward) and the Washington Capitals.
Gionta was to arrive home Friday or Saturday from PyeongChang, where he was captain of Team USA. The Americans were eliminated on Tuesday by a shootout a loss to Slovakia in the quarterfinals.
When the contract is signed, the grand plan for the season will have just one final component: a Cup victory.
When the Buffalo Sabres in July opted not to bring Gionta back for a fourth season, he opted for temporary semi-retirement. Signing elsewhere would have meant moving his family to another city, and he said it was time he focused on their lives and turned down three possible NHL offers.
But while practicing with the Rochester Americans in preparation for the second Winter Olympic Games of his career (he played in 2006 in Torino, Italy), he was pointing to earning an NHL contract for the final month and a half of the season.
Gionta played one game for the Amerks, scoring a goal on Feb. 2 before departing for South Korea. Amerks fans had hoped he would rejoin the club following the Olympics.
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