Cal Foote signs one-year deal with Swedish team Färjestad - Daily Faceoff
Cal Foote, a former National Hockey League defenseman, has signed a one-year contract with Färjestad BK of Sweden. The deal extends through the 2026-27 campaign, marking Foote’s first professional season in Sweden and his second overseas.
The Swedish Hockey League team announced the signing on Tuesday. Foote, who is 27, spent the previous season with the Chicago Wolves, an American Hockey League affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes. During his time with the Wolves, he recorded four goals and 14 assists, accumulating 18 points in 48 regular-season games.
Professional Career Overview
Foote’s contributions to the Chicago Wolves also included three goals and eight assists for 11 points in 21 AHL playoff games. His performance helped the team reach the Calder Cup Final, where they ultimately lost to the Toronto Marlies in five games.
Across seven AHL seasons, Foote has played for the Chicago Wolves, Utica Comets, and Syracuse Crunch. In 227 regular-season games in the AHL, he has amassed 24 goals and 67 assists, totaling 91 points. Additionally, he has participated in 32 Calder Cup Playoff games, where he registered four goals and nine assists for 13 points.
His NHL career spans parts of four campaigns, during which the Denver, Colorado native collected five goals and 15 assists, for a total of 20 points in 145 career regular-season games. Foote also appeared in 13 career NHL playoff games. While he did not play in a playoff game during the Tampa Bay Lightning‘s 2021 Stanley Cup run, his name was added to the trophy.
Foote was initially drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning as the 14th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. He was considered a strong two-way defensive prospect coming out of the Western Hockey League‘s Kelowna Rockets program. In his post-draft season with the Kelowna Rockets, he recorded 19 goals and 70 points in 60 games with a +31 rating.
During his three seasons with the Kelowna Rockets, Foote scored 33 goals and provided 130 assists, accumulating 163 points in 202 regular-season games. He was named captain of the Rockets ahead of the 2017-18 season.
Recent Career Path
Foote’s professional career began with a decent start in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch, where he scored 16 goals and 59 points in 138 games with a +11 rating over his first two years. However, his offensive capabilities did not transfer to the NHL level despite extended opportunities with the Lightning.
In two-and-a-half years with the Lightning, Foote scored only four goals and 15 points in 117 games, averaging 13:18 of ice time per game. During the 2022-23 campaign, Tampa Bay traded Foote, along with five draft picks, to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Tanner Jeannot. Following a brief stint with the Predators, the team opted not to tender him a contract.
He then signed a one-year, two-way contract with the New Jersey Devils for the 2023-24 season. Later that season, Foote, alongside teammate Michael McLeod, was granted an indefinite leave of absence by the Devils. This occurred before they were charged with sexual assault related to an incident during the 2017-18 IIHF World Junior Championships.
The trial for these charges did not commence until 2025. Foote, along with Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, and Michael McLeod, was found not guilty on July 24th of that year. Following the conclusion of the trial, Foote made his first move overseas, signing with HK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas in the Slovak Extraliga. He completed that season with three goals and 30 points in 38 games, registering a -8 rating.
His most recent season was spent entirely on an AHL deal with the Chicago Wolves, where he scored four goals and 18 points in 48 games with a +10 rating, before signing with Färjestad BK.
Source: dailyfaceoff.com
