The Pittsburgh Penguins have added a bit of depth, signing Xavier Ouellet to a two-year contract according to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. The deal will be a two-way contract with an NHL cap hit of $750K and AHL salary of $450K.
The thing that sticks out about this signing is Ouellet’s $450K AHL salary. That’s a premium number for an AHL-er, and likely a representation of the Penguins’ desire to improve things in Wilkes-Barre Scranton. Ouellet can help them do that, there’s no question about that. Ouellet, the Captain of the Laval Rocket, led the Rocket on a run to the AHL’s Eastern Conference Final and led them there as the team’s number-one defenseman. Ouellet, 178 career NHL games, led the Rocket in average ice time, eating over 22 minutes per night. He also was a major player on both the Rocket’s special teams units and finished with 41 points in 61 games.
Make no mistake, this deal is a major win for Wilkes-Barre Scranton and unlikely to have any major impact in Pittsburgh. Ouellet’s last NHL action came during the Canadiens’ two-round run in the bubble, and over the course of his NHL career, Ouellet has been simply a fine injury replacement/depth defensive defenseman. That’s the role he’ll occupy in Pittsburgh, and he may get games if the team suffers poor injury luck, as they often do.
But in Wilkes-Barre Scranton, his impact will be far greater, as the Penguins have just gotten an AHL number-one defenseman for their affiliate, at a price that affirms the Penguins’ new ownership’s commitment to building a winner at the AHL level as well as the NHL level.
I forgot we got him, but I actually wouldn’t mind bringing back Nathan Bealieau to be a 7 or 8 D for us.
Sweet! Start planning the parade now Hexy for all of the minor league depth players we will be signing from now until the start of the season because we have zero money left for actual decent roster players!
We literally have two bottom six forward spots to fill and more than $4 million left and all of the key players secured.
Did u forget Kap is probably going to eat half of that at least in arbitration?
Did you forget that they are signing on 2 way contracts and do not count against the Cap until put on the NHL roster?
Oh and looks like Tokarski is taking another almost 800,000 out of the budget. Nice work!
So…you have no idea how any of this works, eh?
Now more Louie Louie so need a back up to sit in WB until needed Like Louie did. Does not count against the cap until put on the NHL Roster. Same with Ouellet
My first thought was I wondered what happened to Ouellet thinking of the Winger Michel that is a former Pen. Wrong Ouellet :)
I like that this article points out that Hextall is trying to improve WBS
absolutely will help the young guys development to surround them with viable talent