Former top prospect's NHL career could be over

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Liam
October 11, 2023 (11:24)

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After a successful start to his career in junior, being selected 50th overall by the Anaheim Ducks, and appearing in 210 NHL games by age 24, Max Comtois has potentially already found the end of the line of his playing days in the NHL.

Comtois notably captained Team Canada to a gold medal in the World Junior Championships, once scoring four goals in a single game in the tournament. Since then, he's appeared in over 200 disappointing games with the Anaheim Ducks, who did not qualify Comtois as a restricted free agent last offseason. Comtois wasn't able to gather interest as a free agent, and instead had to take a professional tryout offer from the Vegas Golden Knights. Now as the regular season began yesterday, the news came that the Golden Knightscwoukd be releasing Comtois, as head coach Bruce Cassidy explained that he was outplayed for the job.

"Bruce Cassidy said Max Comtois was released from his PTO yesterday without a contract. He said they were very happy with how [Paul] Cotter and [Pavel] Dorofeyev performed in camp and preseason and 'there are only so many spots.'"

Now that Comtois is a free agent once again, his next destination is entirely unknown. It seems extremely unlikely that there's any interest at this point in time.

Additionally, the World Junior team which Comtois served as Captain is the 2018 team - currently under investigation by Hockey Canada and the London Police for sexual assault. Comtois has released a statement denying involvement with the incident, but there's certainly still a stink that follows him.