Erik Brännström has played in North America since 2018 but multiple Swedish media sources are reporting that he will return to Europe next season.

HockeyNews.se is reporting that the 25-year-old Swedish defenseman is most likely headed to Switzerland, where he would sign a long-term deal – a scoop attributed to an Expressen.se article behind a paywall.

The website further notes that Genève-Servette and HC Lugano are two teams in Switzerland’s National League who have room to add imports to their rosters. Both teams that have generally not been afraid to pay well for talent, particularly Genève, although both teams also struggled and missed the playoffs this past season.

Lugano Dismisses Coach Krupp And Several Noteworthy Players Just days after the team saved its position in Switzerland’s National League by defeating HC Ajoie in a playout series, HC Lugano parted ways with head coach Uwe Krupp and several notable players, including goaltender Adam Húska, defenseman Valtteri Pulli, and forwards Mark Arcobello, Daniel Carr, Radim Zohorna and Aleksi Peltonen.

Originally from Eksjö, Sweden, Brännström played junior hockey and turned pro with HV71 in nearby Jönköping.

Brännström was a first-round pick, 17th overall, by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and was moved to the Ottawa Senators in a 2019 multi-player deal that saw Vegas acquire Mark Stone.

From 2019 to 2024, Brännström’s career was fairly stable – mostly playing in the NHL for Ottawa with occasional assignments to the Belleville Senators, the team’s nearby AHL farm team.

However, this season has been quite chaotic for the diminutive, puck-moving defenseman. He signed as a free-agent with the Colorado Avalanche in the summer but was traded to the Vancouver Canucks before the season began. After playing 28 games in Vancouver, he was dealt to the New York Rangers as part of the J.T. Miller trade in late January and then traded again to the Buffalo Sabres just prior to the trade deadline. He has not played an NHL game for either of the latter two teams.

Overall, Brännström has 77 points and 162 penalty minutes in 294 NHL regular-season games.

If he signs in Switzerland, it will be Brännström’s second tour of duty there, although the first one only lasted 10 games with the SCL Tigers in the autumn of 2020 while the start of the NHL season was delayed by pandemic-related restrictions.

Victor Soderstrom Wins Borje Salming Trophy As SHL’s Top Defenseman Victor Söderström has been named the top defenseman in the Swedish Hockey League for the 2024-25 season. As a result, he has been awarded the Börje Salming Trophy.