Koskinen signs with Lugano in Swiss league

Mikko Koskinen is leaving the Edmonton Oilers and heading back overseas.

The goaltender signed with Lugano in Switzerland's National League.

Koskinen was a pending NHL unrestricted free agent.

The Finnish netminder, who'll turn 34 in July, went 27-12-4 with a .903 save percentage in 45 regular-season games with the Oilers this season. However, he saved minus-2.01 goals above expected and minus-6.27 goals above average in 2021-22, according to Evolving-Hockey.

Koskinen also appeared in three playoff games this spring, going 0-2 while allowing six goals on 58 shots. He surrendered five of them in a 9-6 loss to the Calgary Flames in Game 1 of their second-round series.

Mike Smith was limited to 28 contests during the regular season but started all 16 of Edmonton's games in this postseason, relegating Koskinen to the backup role he served for much of his NHL tenure.

Koskinen, who played four games with the New York Islanders in 2010-11, spent the last four campaigns with the Oilers, who inked him to a one-year pact out of the KHL in May 2018.

Peter Chiarelli, then Edmonton's general manager, gave Koskinen a three-year deal carrying a $4.5-million cap hit just 27 games into the goalie's first season back in the NHL in January 2019. Koskinen was 14-10-1 with a .911 save percentage at the time and ultimately went 25-21-6 with a mark of .906 that season.

Koskinen played two campaigns in Finland's SM-liiga and five in the KHL in between his two NHL stints. The Islanders drafted him 31st overall in 2009.

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