Nick Ritchie gets kicked off yet another team, GM slams him on his way out

Surprise, surprise... Nick Ritchie is out of a job yet again.

The 28 year old former 10th overall pick (2014, Anaheim Ducks) has forced himself off of Oulun Karpat's roster in the Finnish SM-Liiga due to some particularly uninspired play. Karpat's GM Mikko Myllykoski posted this on the team's website earlier today:

"Kärpät cannot offer Ritchie a big enough role in the team for the rest of the season, so he is free to look for a place to play elsewhere. When he came up, we knew he was a high risk / high reward style card that we thought was worth a look. However, he was not able to rise to the role that we would have needed him to play."

- Mikko Myllykoski

The 6'3", 236 pound winger has just one goal and five points in 10 games with Karpat this season. This is following a 2022-23 campaign split between the Arizona Coyotes and Calgary Flames where he managed 13 goals and 26 points in 74 games. His work ethic has been in question at every stop in his NHL career and he's effectively been kicked off or run off of every team he has played for due to his uninspired play. 

Look, I'm sure Ritchie is a good guy who doesn't deserve to have his name constantly dragged through the mud, but he's such a prime example of a high profile pick who doesn't work out because he feels that he doesn't have to work as hard as his teammates. Again, that may not be in the case in actuality, but that's the reputation that Ritchie has around the hockey world. All the tools and no toolbox, as they say. In more blunt terms: He's a bust.

At this point, I don't think we'll be hearing or seeing anything from Ritchie at the NHL level again. He's played for five NHL teams and he can't even keep a roster spot on a middling team in a middling European league. Remember, this isn't exactly the top KHL team in Russia kicking him off their squad, it's the 6th place team in a 15 team Finnish pro league.