Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff is reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks have wasted little time in moving to sign forward Nick Foligno as he has accepted a one-year contract for $4MM. Foligno was traded yesterday by the Boston Bruins in what amounts to a salary dump as the Bruins scramble to gain cap space before free agency opens on July 1st. He was traded along with Taylor Hall for the rights to RFAs Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula. Foligno will be joining the fifth organization in his 16-year career having also spent time with the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The 35-year-old spent two years with the Bruins after signing with the club as an unrestricted free agent in July 2021. His first year in Boston was largely forgettable as he put up career lows with two goals and 11 assists in 64 games. However, last season he was able to double his output with 10 goals and 16 assists in 60 games while finding more of a role in Boston’s dominant forward group.
At this point in his career, Foligno is more of a third-liner but he will likely be asked to take some top-6 minutes in Chicago’s weak forward group unless they make significant upgrades over the summer. It should be interesting to see how he acclimates himself as he moves from the President’s Trophy winner to a team that could very well find itself near the bottom of the league standings.
From Chicago’s perspective, there is little downside to this move. While it is certainly a dramatic overpay for an aging forward, they must reach the cap floor and Foligno should provide some good veteran leadership throughout the season. Chicago will likely have to overpay any other free agent acquisitions as well since the season ahead will be a bumpy one in the windy city.
Yeah, I imagine that no other team but Arizona would’ve given Foligno that much. He can certainly still play some hockey, and did well for the Bruins last year, but he sure ain’t worth $4 MM AAV.
He is if you weight the fine for missing the Cap Floor against it and he’s probably only going to be here a half of the year anyway.
Wow that’s a lot of money
I wonder if over paying players like this is a form of circumventing the cap. The NHLPA won’t say anything but I wonder what the chances Bettman says something to stop stuff like this before it gets out of control in the future.
What is Bettman going to say? “You’re not allowed to overpay players?” As long as the team reaches the cap floor it shouldn’t matter how they decide to spend it. Unless you’d prefer the Blackhawks to jump in on the LTIR shuffle and pick up some of those guys just to meet the cap floor. The other alternatives is (A) bail other teams out of bad contracts, which they’ll probably do to some degree anyway or (B) overpay slightly better free agents to convince them to stick around during the lean years.
I think this will actually be Foligno’s fifth organization. I know we Leafs’ fans try to forget his time with the team, but there’s no reason you should.
Thanks, I hope as pretty sure he spent time with the Leafs.
“Foligno will be joining the fourth organization in his 16-year career” – that’s how forgettable his Leafs tenure was!
I like Foligno but he is a shell of his former self. Even if Chicago eats half of this money to trade him for picks at the deadline, I can’t see the return being worth 2 million. But I guess at the same time you need to have some veterans to help the young guys through a rebuild. That could be invaluable.
Good mentor for what’s his name. Alex Ovechkin had a guy named Chris Clark as his mentor, when he was a kid, and we know how that turned out. Similar situation.
4 million for a 35 year old broken down war horse?