The Phoenix Coyotes are now short one goaltender.

HC Lugano of the Swiss NLA announced Wednesday signing Phoenix Coyotes goaltender David Aebischer to a multi-year contract.

Aebischer had been playing on the Coyotes AHL affiliate in San Antonio. He'd received an offer from HC Lugano a few weeks ago but had told them he wanted to consider his options.

With the Coyotes claiming Ilya Bryzgalov off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks this past weekend and with Alex Auld clearing waivers on Tuesday and demoted to San Antonio the 'Yotes were overstocked with goalies.

The club could've tried to trade Aebischer or place him on re-entry waivers to move him, but most likely he was probably told to take up the Lugano offer as there was probably no interest in him from other NHL teams.

Aebischer will probably be "on loan" to HC Lugano rather than suspended by the Coyotes, since Switzerland is part of the NHL-IIHF player transfer agreement. Under that scenario, HC Lugano will probably have to compensate the Coyotes for part of Aebischer's remaining NHL salary for this season.

His salary didn't count against the Coyotes salary cap whilst he was in the minors so it'll remain off their books for the rest of this season.

Aebischer's NHL stock has been in decline since the 2005-06 season. Once considered the heir apparent to Patrick Roy with the Colorado Avalanche, his inconsistent play in the '05-'06 season led to his trade to the Montreal Canadiens in March 2006.

He never really seemed to recover from the lack of faith shown in him by the Avs, becoming the Canadiens third string goalie late in the 2006-07 season, and failed to stick with a rebuilding Coyotes team this season, demoted last month to their AHL farm team after only one game.

It's possible Aebishcer could recover his form playing in Switzerland but most likely his once-promising NHL career, which included being part of the Avalanche's 2001 Stanley Cup championship team, is over.