The 26-year-old Koch registered 3-9-12 with 69 penalty minutes (PIM) in 46 regular season games with the Czech Extraliga's HC Vitkovice this season and added 2-2-4 and 17 PIM over 16 playoff games. The Malacky, SVK native also represented Slovakia at the 2023 World Championship where he recorded 1-3-4 in seven games to lead all Slovakia defensemen in scoring.
"We are very pleased to have Patrik join our organization," said Armstrong. "He is a competitive, defensive defenseman with good puck moving capability and was an integral contributor to the Slovak National Team's defense for many years. We look forward to seeing him in training camp."
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenseman played the last three seasons for Vitkovice, posting 6-17-23 with 265 PIM over 156 career Czech Extraliga regular-season games, including eight games with HC Kometa Brno over parts of the 2015-17 seasons where he was teammates with Coyotes goaltender Karel Vejmelka.
Koch began his professional career by playing five seasons in the Slovak Extraliga (2015-19), collecting 6-29-35 with 266 PIM and a plus-17 rating in 193 career contests, including a professional career-best 4-13-17 and 100 PIM for HC Kosice in 2018-19. He also played one season in North America for the USHL's Des Moines Buccaneers in 2014-15, collecting 3-4-7 and 35 PIM in 23 games.
