Lubomir Visnovsky's agent sent a Tweet late on Tuesday that suggests that the defenceman will soon return to North America to honour his contract with the New York Islanders.
Player agent Neil Sheehy said via Twitter, "Lubomir Visnovsky said he looks forward to reporting to the NYI after tending to "personal reasons" which have kept him from reporting."
Prohockeytalk.com is reporting Visnovsky told a Slovakian newspaper that his son has health issues that are not serious but nonetheless need to be resolved before he returns. Citing sources familiar with Visnovsky's situation, NewsDay is reporting Visnovsky could rejoin the Islanders in two-three weeks.
The status of the 36-year-old defenceman has been up in the air since he originally announced last week that he would be staying to play in the KHL in his native Slovakia for the rest of the season.
However, the KHL and NHL have an agreement on honouring contracts that prevents players with existing deals in one league from playing in the other.
If Visnovsky had stayed in Slovakia, he would have been violating that agreement. On Tuesday, Yahoo Sports reported that the KHL had turned down Visnovsky's request to extend his KHL contract to the end of the season.
And on Tuesday night, Visnovsky was held out of Slovan Bratislava's game against Lev Prague.
Visnovsky was traded from the Anaheim Ducks to the Islanders on June 22 last year, and originally didn't report to the team then, either. He cited a no-trade clause in his contract, but eventually an arbitrator ruled in favour of the Islanders.
Visnovsky is scheduled to make $3 million this season with a cap hit of $5.6 million. The veteran of 752 NHL contests has also played for the Kings and Oilers in addition to the Ducks.
