MacArthur off to Germany

Leafs’ winger Clarke MacArthur has jetted to the 2nd German League to play for Eispiraten Crimmitschau. This was reported this morning by Paul Romanuk, or "the best World Juniors commentator ever" as he’s known in some circles.

Romanuk says it’s "confirmed" that MacArthur is going there. Was there a swirl of rumors surrounding this that I happened to miss out on?

From a quick search of the interweb, it looks as if this new team MacArthur will be joining has only made the playoffs once in the past few years and has hit the relegation round the rest of the time. I don’t know the exact structure of 2nd Bundesliga, but put simply, this team loses more games than it wins, so MacArthur should ease right in to the lineup.

Fellow NHL players Wayne Simmonds and Chris Stewart joined this team when the lockout started, and Simmonds even went on to score 14 points in only nine games. However, we’ve since learned that both left the team this week.

From Broad Street Hockey:

"Wayne Simmonds‘ days of tearing apart Germany’s 2nd Bundesliga are over. Eispariten Crimmitschau announced late Friday that the Flyers forward would depart the team Monday on his way to Liberec in the Czech Extraliga. Fellow NHLer and close friend Chris Stewart will be joining Simmonds."

The official Eispiraten Crimmitschau team website can be found here.