2019 Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Brayden Tracey has signed a contract with Blue Devils Weiden, a club in DEL2, the second tier of professional hockey in Germany. The former WHL rookie of the year has spent each of the last two seasons playing in Europe, though he has bounced between a few leagues and teams.
Tracey, who was once considered a top-10 prospect in the Ducks’ system, played three full seasons of professional hockey in North America before crossing over to Europe. His best AHL campaign came in 2021-22, when he scored 31 points in 55 games and earned his first NHL call-up and first NHL game. Tracey began his European career with Jukurit in Liiga, later transferred to Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia, and spent 2025-26 with Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan. Now he’s adding a fourth country, and fourth league, in the third year of his European pro career.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
AHL forward Luke Toporowski has decided to begin his own pro career in the European leagues, as he signed a deal with the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old former WHL All-Star has spent the last four years as a full-time AHL player. In his rookie season, 2022-23, he scored 15 goals and 29 points in 47 games. He wasn’t able to build on that, but did manage 13 goals and 28 points in 53 games for the Iowa Wild in 2023-24. This past season, he scored eight goals and 16 points in 38 games split between the Hershey Bears and Colorado Eagles.
2015 Florida Panthers third-round pick Thomas Schemitsch has changed DEL teams, signing with the Schwenninger Wild Wings. The 6’3″ blueliner has been a steady top-four defenseman in the DEL, and scored 33 points in 52 games in that role last season for Augsburg. A DEL champion from his 2023-24 season with Berlin, Schemitsch has 64 points in 104 career games in Germany, and 103 points from 318 career AHL games.