NHL

Datsyuk leaving Red Wings to play in Russia-based KHL

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Pavel Datsyuk addresses the media about his future during a news conference, Saturday, June 18, 2016 in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. Datsyuk announced plans to leave the Detroit Red Wings with a year left on his contract to reunite with his teenage daughter and continue his career in Russia. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) (The Associated Press)

Pavel Datsyuk addresses the media about his future during a news conference, Saturday, June 18, 2016 in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. Datsyuk announced plans to leave the Detroit Red Wings with a year left on his contract to reunite with his teenage daughter and continue his career in Russia. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) (The Associated Press)

Pavel Datsyuk, right, walks by his agent Dan Milstein after addressing the media about his future during a news conference, Saturday, June 18, 2016 in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. Datsyuk announced plans to leave the Detroit Red Wings with a year left on his contract to reunite with his teenage daughter and continue his career in Russia. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) (The Associated Press)

Pavel Datsyuk is leaving the Detroit Red Wings with a year left on his contract, saying it's time to return home and play in the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League.

The 37-year-old Datsyuk announced his plans Saturday at a news conference at his youth hockey camp in the Detroit area. The move was not a huge surprise. Toward the end of the season, he was quoted in a Detroit Free Press story saying he would retire from the NHL, but Datsyuk later told reporters there was a chance he could change his mind.

He said Saturday his final decision came when he was on vacation with his family recently.

Datsyuk, a native of Sverdlovsk, Russia, says he intends to play in the KHL. He did not say for how much longer.