The Ducks have re-signed winger Pavol Regenda to a one-year contract, two-way contract, the team announced in a news release Friday.
Last season, Regenda notched 34 points in 54 games with the Ducks’ top minor-league affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, and appeared in five games for the parent club. He has three points in 19 career NHL games.
At 6-foot-4 and 211 pounds, the 24-year-old Slovak flanker could mix into a bottom six that should feature other bigger yet skilled players. They include Brett Leason, whom the Ducks re-signed this week, and Nikita Nesterenko, whom they tendered a qualifying offer Sunday along with Regenda and defenseman Jackson LaCombe.
Regenda has represented Slovakia in each of the past three World Championships. He previously donned his nation’s distinctive coat of arms at two levels of world junior championship competition as well as the 2022 Winter Olympics, where Slovakia took home bronze medals and he notched four points.
He also scored 39 points in 43 games in the Slovak pro league that season, prompting the Ducks to sign him as an undrafted free agent.
Last season, he surmounted hindrances caused by injuries to finish the season on a high note in the minors and earn some post-trade-deadline exposure at the top level.
“Sometimes some of these young players have to find out how to play injured and come back from those types of injuries even better than [when] you went out,” Ducks director of player development Jim Johnson told the team’s Website. “I expect him to come in, have a real good year and have an opportunity to fight for an NHL position.”
