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Preds’ Smith leaves Finnish team for “personal reasons”

craigsmithgetty

James

Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith has left Finnish club KalPa for personal reasons, according to the KalPa website.

Matias Strozyk of Elite Prospects adds that Smith has returned to North America after terminating his deal with the SM-liiga team “through his own initiative.”

It’s unclear why Smith left the team but, statistically speaking, it doesn’t appear to be a performance issue. The 23-year-old had eight points in eight games since signing in early October and averaged almost 19 minutes TOI.

In his last game, an Oct. 27 win over Assat, Smith had an assist and played 22:36, his highest ice-time total since joining the club.

UPDATE: Josh Cooper of The Tennessean received word from Smith’s agent, Kevin Magnuson -- sounds like Smith simply wanted to return to Wisconsin to resume training...

“Craig is on his way home from Finland today. Although he was enjoying his experience, and doing quite well on the ice, he feels that skating and training in Madison is the best option for him to prepare for the upcoming season,” Magnuson said. “The Kalpa team and management could not have been better and Craig is very appreciative for the opportunity to have the tremendous life experience that he did.”