Veteran forward David Booth has found a team. The 39-year-old signed a one-year contract with Eisbären Regensburg of DEL2, the second tier of German hockey.
Booth, who was once a Florida Panthers 31-goal scorer, spent last season with Storhamar (EliteHockey Ligaen) and collected 11 goals, 23 points in 16 games. He also had one goal, five points in one game played with the Jackson Hole Moose of the BDHL in the States, before heading to Europe.
Booth, who has taken part in just 28 NHL games since 2014-15, last played in the NHL in 2017-18 before moving to the KHL to play for Dinamo Minsk. In 2015, he left for the KHL, before making a short comeback with the Detroit Red Wings in 2017-18.
Reports say that Booth was signed by Regensburg to cover for the loss of star forward Richard Diviš , who originally helped the team achieve promotion from the third-tier Oberliga to the DEL2.
Booth, who was once a solid top-six player in the NHL, is rumoured to be quite different from other professional American players and enjoys living in more remote areas and play at what are considered lower levels. When he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks, his time there ended when the team used their second compliance buyout on him nine years ago in the summer of 2014. It was rough for Booth in Vancouver, where he suffered a knee injury his first season, then had groin issues and a badly broken ankle that required surgery during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. Former NHL defenseman Kevin Bieksa told a story about Booth last March in which he revealed the forward missed a team meeting ahead of a game because he was out hunting white tail deer, calling him an odd guy.
“One meeting that we had in Buffalo, [Booth] wasn’t there. So we’re calling him, and we were like ‘Boother, we’re having a meeting now, where are you?'” Bieksa revealed then to the panel.
“He goes, ‘I’m in Ohio, hunting white tail deer’. He was in Ohio, he was a state over, and he was in a tree, hunting deer. Just a bizarre guy. Punctuality was not his priority.”
Let’s see if the former star forward, who played from the Panthers, Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Red Wings, can help keep them in contention for promotion to the DEL.
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