Tomas Nosek signs with Czech team Dynamo Pardubice

A veteran is leaving the NHL to return to his hometown team.

On Friday, HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga, the top professional hockey league in Czechia, announced that they have signed forward Tomas Nosek.

The length and financial details of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

Nosek, 33, hails from Pardubice, Czechia, and spent three seasons playing for HC Dynamo Pardubice before coming to North America is 2014.

In 21 games played for the Florida Panthers last season, Nosek had just two goals and two assists for four points. He missed the first five months of the season with a knee injury, and then suffered a broken leg in mid-April that caused him to miss the remainder of the season.

Nosek began his NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings, notching one goal and no assists in 17 total games for them over the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. His full-time NHL career began in earnest after he was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in their 2017 Expansion Draft. He went on to play four seasons with Vegas, compiling 31 goals and 34 assists for 65 points over 240 regular season games.

Ahead of the 2021-22 season, Nosek signed a two-year, $3.5 million deal with the Boston Bruins. Over his two seasons in Boston, he scored 10 goals and added 25 assists for 35 points in 141 regular season games.

Nosek then signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the New Jersey Devils for the 2023-24 season. He played in just 36 games for New Jersey that year due to multiple injuries, putting up two goals and four assists for six points.

He signed a one-year, $775,000 deal with the Panthers ahead of the 2024-25 season. He had just a goals and eight assists for nine points in 59 regular season games that year, but played an important fourth-line role in the playoffs en route to winning the Stanley Cup.