Former first-round pick Emile Poirier signs AHL contract

Emile Poirier is coming back to North America, signing a one-year AHL contract with the Laval Rocket. He returns after two years of playing overseas, splitting time between the KHL, SHL and Slovakian professional league.

Selected 22nd overall in 2013, Poirier quickly made it to the NHL with the Calgary Flames after an outstanding junior career that blended offensive skill and a good level of physicality. It was a short-lived stint at the highest level though, as after eight games in his first two professional seasons, Poirier was stuck in the AHL for the next several years.

In 2018 he failed to receive a qualifying offer from the Flames when his entry-level contract expired, and after two fairly unspectacular seasons with the Manitoba Moose, it was off to Europe.

Now returning at the age of 27, perhaps the 6-2 forward can carve out a new role with the Rocket and get his career back on track. Notably, however, this deal is a two-way minor league contract, meaning he will earn a different salary at the AHL and ECHL levels. That suggests his spot with the Rocket is by no means guaranteed, quite a fall for a first-round pick.

That pick was always likely an overreach by the Flames scouting staff – a group who had made Mark Jankowski its top pick just a year earlier. Perhaps buoyed by the confidence of picking three times in the 2013 first round, the Flames took Poirier quite a bit higher than many had him ranked, with NHL Central Scouting even putting him 39th among North American skaters in its final pre-draft list.