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The Arizona Coyotes claimed Slovakian forward Adam Ruzicka off waivers from the Calgary Flames on January 25.
Less than one month later, Ruzicka is already out the door. But it’s not because of his play.
Arizona waived Ruzicka on Friday after he posted a video on Instagram appearing to show him doing cocaine or similar hard drugs.
We will get clarity closer to waivers in an hour, but expectation is Arizona is going to waive Adam Ruzicka for the purposes of contract termination.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 23, 2024
“We have placed forward Adam Ruzicka on unconditional waivers for purposes of terminating his contract,” a spokesman for the team told Sportsnet. “The club will have no further comment at this time.”
Ruzicka, 24, was a fourth-round pick Flames in 2017. But he struggled to find his footing in Calgary, putting up just 40 points in 114 games.
He played just three games in Arizona and recorded zero points.
The NHL has not commented on the video. But there is prior precedent for a potential punishment.
The league suspended Washington Capitals star Evgeny Kuznetsov for three games in 2019 for “inappropriate conduct,” after he was banned from playing for Russia for four years because of a positive test for cocaine.
Clearly, the NHL and KHL have slightly different drug policies.
Although given Ruzicka’s career path before the video, it’s hard to imagine he finds his way back to the league anytime soon.
Now, we at BroBible dot com are not in the business of career advice. But posting a video on social media of you doing anything that remotely resembles hard drugs seems like a bad idea.
Who’s to say what Ruzicka thought would happen? Maybe he was already under the influence of something else when said video was posted. But there was only ever going to be one outcome.
Now he’s out of a job. And the already struggling Coyotes, who have the fifth-worst point total in the league, are back in the market for a playable center.