Bruins' Zdeno Chara leads day's exodus to Europe

USATODAY

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara has agreed to play for Prague in the Kontinental Hockey League until the NHL resumes competition.

His agent, Matt Keator, told USA TODAY Sports that Chara had several options, but decided that Lev Praha (Prague Lions) was the best fit.

"He has friends there, and it's within hours of his home in Slovakia and it's a great hockey city," Keator said.

Chara, who won the Norris Trophy in 2008-09 and captained the Bruins to the Stanley Cup title in 2011, played junior hockey in Prague for HC Sparta in 1995-96. He plays for Slovakia internationally.

Prague has hit the KHL limit of three locked-out NHL players. The Calgary Flames' Jiri Hudler and Philadelphia Flyers' Jakub Voracek also play there.

Chara was the marquee name Tuesday as more players headed to Europe on the day that NHL talks ended quickly during discussions about hockey-related revenues.

Chara's Bruins teammate Patrice Bergeron will sign with HC Lugano in Switzerland, a country that is a popular destination for locked-out North Americans. Joe Thonton, Rick Nash, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Logan Couture and Max Pacioretty are among the other players who have headed there.

Bergeron won the Selke Trophy last season as top defensive forward. The Lugano release said people outside the team provided the financing to sign him.

Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn signed with the Hamburg Freezers in Germany, the team announced. If the paperwork is done in time, he could make his debut against Mannheim on Friday.

Benn played in the All-Star Game last season, shortly after having an appendectomy. He's an unsigned restricted free agent.

Keator said his client, San Jose Sharks forward T.J. Galiardi, was also looking at employment in Germany.

Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene tweeted that he had signed a deal with Frolunda of the Swedish Elite League. "Can't wait to arrive in Gothenburg on Thursday evening and to get an Indians jersey on," he said.

A second NHL player suffered an injury in European competition. St. Louis Blues defenseman Kris Rusell hurt his knee in a Finnish League game and will be returning home, TPS Turku announced.

Nash missed Tuesday's Davos game with a shoulder injury. He was hurt last week.

Meanwhile, the KHL announced it has reached a deal with ESPN3 to broadcast some of its games in the USA. Two of the five games that the league said will be shown in early October will feature Chara:

Oct: 3: Dynamo Moscow (Alex Ovechkin) vs Ak Bars Kazan (former NHL player Alexei Morozov)

Oct. 6: Lev Praha (Chara, Voracek, Hudler) vs SKA St. Petersburg (Ilya Kovalchuk, Vladimir Tarasenko, Sergei Bobrovsky).

Oct. 7: Slovan Bratislava (Lubomir Visnovsky) vs. Dynamo Moscow

Oct. 8: CSKA Moscow (Pavel Datsyuk, Mikhail Grabovski, Ilya Bryzgalov, former Nashville Predator Alexander Radulov) vs SKA St. Petersburg

Oct. 9: Lev Praha vs Dynamo Moscow

Contributing: Mike Brehm