Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk’s former Panthers teammate surprisingly leaves NHL

The Florida Panthers have become synonymous with success in the NHL recently, reaching three straight Stanley Cup Finals. However, not everybody who’s been on the organization has enjoyed such highs. On that note, a former teammate of Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and most of the players currently on Florida’s team has decided to step away from the league.

Barkov, Tkachuk, and the Florida Panthers are fully focused on the 2025 Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers, yet they must have been taken aback by the decision of a former teammate to leave the NHL.

Chris Driedger, the former Panthers goaltender has made a shocking decision to join the Traktor Chelyabinsk in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in Russia. There, he’ll hope to blossom into a bona fide starting goaltender, a role he never managed to find in his NHL career.

Background

Driedger entered the league as the 76th overall selection in the 2012 NHL entry Draft, being selected by the Ottawa Senators. He joined Barkov and the Panthers for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns, where he took on the backup role behind Sergei Bobrovsky.

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He stayed in Sunrise until the Expansion Draft in 2021, when the Panthers left him unprotected and the Seattle Kraken decided to take him to the Emerald City. However, he was the backup, once again, this time behind Philipp Grubauer. His career has been marked by constant call-ups and sent-down between the NHL and AHL.

Driedger’s last NHL appearance came during the 2023–24 campaign. Since then, he was traded back to Florida, where he reunited with Barkov and met Tkachuk, but was later sent to his hometown of Winnipeg to join the Jets—though he never made it past their AHL affiliate. Now, ahead of the 2025–26 season, Driedger has decided to skip town and pursue new horizons in Russia.