The leading point scorer among free agent defensemen this summer will have to settle for a camp tryout. Matt Grzelcyk is heading to the Blackhawks on a PTO, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Chicago later confirmed the signing by listing Grzelcyk on their training camp roster.
While the market for Grzelcyk wasn’t near what he or anyone else expected, it’s still jarring to see a rearguard with the platform season he had not land a guaranteed contract heading into camp. The 31-year-old lefty was also a UFA last summer but landed a one-year, $2.75MM deal with the Penguins on the first day of free agency. That contract led to expanded ice time in Pittsburgh, where he saw some power-play usage and averaged north of 20 minutes per game for the first time in his nine-year career. He played all 82 games – the first time he’s ever done that, too – and ranked third on the team with 39 assists. Only Sidney Crosby (58) and Erik Karlsson (42) had more.
Individual defensive acumen and a lack of physicality remain the 5’10” defender’s limiting factors. Still, he was at least able to prove once again that he can be a productive puck-mover in a top-four role as he was for many years in Boston, serving as a routine Charlie McAvoy partner for a good chunk of his early career. That led AFP Analytics to project a three-year contract for Grzelcyk in the $3.75MM range annually on the open market, while we projected a slightly cheaper deal and ranked him No. 22 among all unrestricted free agents this summer.
Grzelcyk now heads to training camp in Chicago, where the Blackhawks will welcome him as insurance for the league’s most inexperienced defense group. Connor Murphy is the only defender under contract in the Windy City over the age of 25. Alex Vlasic, at 24 years of age and 179 games of NHL experience, is the club’s top lefty by a wide margin.
Most expected the Hawks to completely hand the keys over to their younger blue-liners this season. Their lack of notable moves on offense signaled they weren’t anticipating jumping back into playoff contention just yet as their rebuild enters its later stages. Even then, there simply may be too many question marks behind Vlasic on Chicago’s left side on defense to make general manager Kyle Davidson comfortable entering camp without any other options. The right side is fairly set with Murphy, 2024 No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov, and 2022 first-rounder Sam Rinzel expected to anchor their own pairings. However, behind Vlasic on the left, there’s no clear No. 2 or No. 3.
That’s not to say Chicago doesn’t have options, but they do lack clarity. Wyatt Kaiser, 23, could be the frontrunner for second-pairing minutes but is still a restricted free agent. 2022 No. 7 overall pick Kevin Korchinski played just 16 NHL games last season with two assists. Defensive-minded lefties Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro both held their own in NHL minutes last season but are far from finished products. Grzelcyk offers a safe plug-and-play option as their second lefty behind Vlasic, buying them time to sort out everyone else’s readiness. Leaving him on a tryout gives the Blackhawks an easy out if they do decide to let names like Allan and Korchinski run with regular minutes out of the gate.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Im cool with this, i just commented a couple days ago that they should, surprised he didn’t find a contract
Crazy that no other team seemed to be willing to offer him a contract. He’s not incredible but he’s definitely an NHL caliber D and certainly better than a number of teams 6 and 7 guys.
I wonder if there’s a medical issue at play here. From a projected three-year deal to a PTO, that’s out of the ordinary if Griz can still go.
Only other plausible explanation is that he had lofty demands for a contract and wasn’t willing to budge earlier. Once everyone had spent most of their money, there wasn’t a landing spot left.
That’s the difference between the stat sheet and the underlying numbers. He’s really bad outside of the power play. I still think he should’ve been able to get a contract
Hopefully Korchinski can hold down the #2 LH defense slot and I could see Grelcyk and Murphy holding down the last pairing. That was supposed to happen with Martinez and Brodie but turned into a total flop. Del Mastro and Allen could use a little more time at Rockford and Kaiser is still unsigned. Maybe this is a ploy to get him in the building as it seems nobody else is really chomping at the bit to toss him a contract.
Pathetic that this is the best he could do. I can see why he wasnt traded at the deadline.
These PTOs, And one year deals, At league minimum, Are the newest form of collusion against the players.
Oh Sparky where are you mining this gold!!! I think rather than some crazy collusion where all 32 teams said “hey I know how we can screw the players let’s none of us give a contract to a small mediocre defenceman and then one organization offer him a PTO…yeah great idea that’ll drive the salaries back down!” Wilfred my boy I think more than likely what has happened here is Grzlyck after a very nice career year decided he wanted to maximize his contract and I don’t blame him however smallish mediocre offensive defencemen don’t typically bury the needle and I think he drove his price too high and now has to settle for a PTO. Now if you were a sane man which one of those options sounds more logical?