Columbus Blue Jackets sign Victor Rask to professional tryout

The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed forward Victor Rask to a professional tryout, CapFriendly reported Wednesday.

Rask, 29, split the 2021–22 season between the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken, scoring nine goals and 21 points in 47 games.

The Blue Jackets have also agreed to terms on a PTO with 6’6″ defenseman Ben Harpur, who skated in 19 NHL games with the Nashville Predators last season. Rask, Harpur, and James Neal will all attend Blue Jackets camp on tryouts.

The Carolina Hurricanes originally selected Rask — a 6’0″ center from Leksand, Sweden — in the second round (No. 42 overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft.

Rask spent the first five seasons of his NHL career in Carolina, surpassing the 40-point plateau twice, before being traded to the Minnesota Wild in 2019 in exchange for Nino Niederreiter.

While Niederreiter thrived in a scoring role with the Hurricanes, Rask struggled to lock down a regular role in Minnesota despite spending ample time as Kirill Kaprizov’s center. The Wild dealt him to the Kraken at the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for future considerations.

Rask finished the 2021–22 season with four goals and eight points in 18 games with Seattle. In 506 career NHL regular-season games with Carolina, Minnesota, and Seattle, Rask has scored 89 goals and 223 points.