NHL exodus continues as Zetterberg joins Zug

Detroit Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg has agreed to join EV Zug in Switzerland.

The 32-year-old is the latest big-name NHL player to head overseas as the lock-out shows no sign of being resolved.

The NHL has already cancelled 82 games that had been scheduled to take place in the first two weeks of the regular-season and there remains deadlock between the owners and players.

There are real fears that the entire NHL schedule could be scrapped, as was the case in 2004-05.

During that lockout Zetterberg returned to his homeland of Sweden to play for his first club, Timra IK, but is heading to Switzerland this time as he has $50million left on his contract, which requires heavy insurance.
Zetterberg will team up with another Red Wings player at Zug, as forward Damien Brunner, who agreed a one-year deal with Detroit in July, is currently playing for the club.

Two other Red Wings players - Pavel Datsyuk and Valtteri Filppula - have also signed for clubs in their native Russia and Finland respectively.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia Flyers stars Claude Giroux and Danny Briere have agreed to play in Germany while Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Pekka Rinne and Ilya Kovalchuk are heading to Russia and Gabriel Landeskog, recently made the captain of the Colorado Avalanche, is playing in Sweden.

Zetterberg has spent a decade with the Red Wings and has been a first-team regular throughout his time in Detroit, helping them compete consistently near the top of the NHL standings.

He helped the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in 2008 and was part of the Sweden team that clinched the gold medal at the Winter Olympics and the World Championships in 2006.

Zetterberg is one of only 24 men that are members of the Triple Gold Club - which involves winning Olympic gold, World Championship gold and the Stanley Cup.