UFA Raphael Diaz hopes to remain in NHL next season

Unrestricted free agent defenseman Raphael Diaz, most recently of the New York Rangers, was moved a dizzying number of times last season. The 28-year-old journeyman defender was traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Vancouver Canucks in February, before being flipped to the New York Rangers at the NHL trade deadline in early March. 

Diaz also represented Switzerland at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia - his stay in the athlete village nearly outlasting his stay in Vancouver. 

Though Diaz was passed around more often than a marijuana cigarette in Maureen Dowd's Colorado hotel room and remains unsigned through the start of August, the veteran Swiss blue-liner remains committed to playing in the NHL next season.

"I'm in contact with several teams, but there's nothing concrete yet," Diaz told Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen on Friday via SwissHockeyNews.ch. "But I hope that something will turn up in the next couple of weeks or months."

The skilled Swiss-born defender hasn't exactly written off a potential return to play in the National League A in Switzerland, but he's looking to remain in North America to play professional hockey.

"I don't know yet, I would have to look at it again," Diaz said of a potential return to the NLA, "but my goal is the NHL."

Diaz has generally posted solid underlying numbers in his NHL career and seems like a player who can move the needle well enough in a third-pairing role, while pitching in effectively on the power-play. The right-handed shooting defender scored two goals and managed 15 points in 63 games with the Rangers, Canucks and Canadiens last season.