Ville Leino released from Bruins tryout; Europe next?

The Boston Bruins released Ville Leino from his professional tryout contract on Monday, and we’re sorta bummed about it.

It appears that Leino is going to go down as one of the biggest busts in recent NHL history. He parlayed a 53-point season with the Philadelphia Flyers into a six-year, $27-million deal with the Buffalo Sabres, back when Terry Pegula thought that throwing money at the problem would result in a Stanley Cup. He went on to score 46 points in 137 games, and was a healthy scratch last season before getting the last three years of his deal bought out.

But face it: The downfall of Ville Leino was because (a) he was handed an absurd contract that any of us would have signed and (b) the team that gave it to him made the still-baffling decision to slot the winger as their No. 2 center, and he fared about as well as asking Adam Sandler to play Hamlet.

So Leino gets cut from his free-labor contract with the Bruins and … now what?

Europe would seem the best option. He played six seasons in SM-liiga before moving over to Grand Rapids and the Detroit Red Wings, and played his last season with Jokerit, who is now part of the KHL.

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Maybe a year and change over there, and then back to the NHL when he’s 32? Seems like he needs to recharge his reputation as much as he needs to reclaim his game.