Former NHLer Simon Despres signs with ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets

Simon Despres, whose once-promising NHL career was cut short in 2017 due to a series of concussions, will return to North America for the 2026-27 season after signing a one-year contract with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets.

Despres, 35, has spent most of the past decade playing in Europe, most notably with the DEL’s Berlin Polar Bears, with whom he won league championships in 2020-21 and 2021-22. He skated in 44 games with the EIHL’s Fife Flyers during the 2025-26 season.

A product of Laval, Quebec, Despres skated in parts of six NHL seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks between 2011-12 and 2016-17. The 6’4″ left-shot defender collected six goals and 43 points in 193 games with Pittsburgh and Anaheim; he added one goal and seven points in 29 playoff contests with the two clubs.

Fort Wayne’s head coach is Ben Boudreau, whose father, Bruce, coached Despres during his tenure with the Ducks. The Komets are affiliated with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors.

“Simon has played at every level in our game and has had success. He’s played in the best leagues in the world alongside some of the best players in the game,” Boudreau said in a statement on Tuesday. “He is a big-body defenseman with an ability to move the puck and produce points while being a physical presence and dominating defensively.”

The Penguins originally selected Despres in the first round (No. 30 overall) of the 2009 NHL Draft. A standout defenseman with the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs, who won a league championship and the Memorial Cup in the final year of his tenure, Despres entered the pro ranks in 2011 amid much fanfare and quickly established himself as one of Pittsburgh’s most promising young players.

Midway through the 2014-15 season, the Penguins traded Despres to the Ducks in exchange for fellow defenseman Ben Lovejoy. Despres finished the 2014-15 campaign with the strongest individual numbers of his NHL career, managing 23 points (three goals, 20 assists), 86 penalty minutes, and a +11 rating across 75 games with Pittsburgh and Anaheim; he added seven points in 16 playoff games as the Ducks reached the Western Conference Final.

Despres suffered a severe concussion early in the 2015-16 season that kept him out of the lineup for 42 games. He appeared in just one NHL game to begin the following season before being ruled out for the rest of the year with lingering symptoms; subsequently, the Ducks bought out the final three years of his contract. In the years since, Despres has played in Slovakia, Germany, Sweden, Austria, and the U.K., as well as semi-professionally in Quebec’s Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, but this will be his first foray into North American professional hockey since his brief stint with the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2018.