Jack Johnson, Anthony Bitetto Sign With New York Rangers
The New York Rangers will see if they can squeeze some value out of Jack Johnson this season, as Darren Dreger of TSN reports they will sign the veteran defenseman to a one-year contract. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports the deal will be worth $1.15MM.
Rangers fans might not like it after watching Johnson flame out in Pittsburgh and require a buyout, but the fact was they needed some depth options on the back end. Since moving Marc Staal there wasn’t a lot on the left side, with only Brendan Smith signed to a one-way deal. Ryan Lindgren should also play on that side, but there are still minutes to go around alongside the Rangers excellent right side.
If he’s playing 20 minutes a night, Johnson is a disaster. But at just over $1MM and on a one-year deal, there is almost no risk for the still-rebuilding Rangers.
For Johnson, this is just another chance to show he can still hack it in the NHL. Now 33, he’ll already be earning almost a million dollars from the Penguins in each of the next six seasons, meaning this deal only supplements his buyout money. Getting a chance to play with the up-and-coming contender will be a treat, even if things haven’t gone well in his last two Eastern Conference stops.
Speaking of depth defenders, John Matisz of theScore also reports that Anthony Bitetto has also signed with the Rangers. His will be a two-year, two-way contract that will pay $725K at the NHL level in 2020-21 and $750K in 2021-22.
Mark Borowiecki, Matt Benning Sign With Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators have brought in a depth defenseman, signing Mark Borowiecki to a two-year contract. The deal is worth a total of $4MM, giving him a nice raise over the $1.2MM he made last season. GM David Poile released a statement:
One of our objectives at the start of free agency was to improve our depth at defense and Mark’s signing goes a long way toward accomplishing that. He adds an element of toughness that we were missing on the back end, as well as being a natural leader and strong penalty killer.
Not only will Borowiecki be manning the blue line for the Predators next season, but Matt Benning has also signed a deal with the team. Benning will get $2MM total over two years, giving the Predators another defenseman that can come in and out of the lineup.
The Predators still have the trio of Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm to eat up most of the ice time every night (along with Dante Fabbro), but have always used experienced pieces to round out their bottom-pairing. Last season it was Dan Hamhuis, Yannick Weber and Matt Irwin, but all three of those players are gone from the organization meaning they needed some new faces.
Borowiecki, a core member of the Ottawa Senators leadership group over the last several years, landed himself quite a nice little contract with the Predators. It always seemed like a perfect fit as a player who can provide leadership and physicality in limited minutes, but at $2MM he’ll have to play regularly.
After moving out money through the buyout of Kyle Turris and trade of Nick Bonino, the Predators still have several lineup spots to fill at forward and more than $11MM to do it.
Derek Grant Expected To Sign With Anaheim Ducks
It’s 2020, remember that when you read the next sentence. Derek Grant will sign a contract with the Anaheim Ducks according to Rick Dhaliwal of TSN. This will be the third stint for Grant in Anaheim after signing one-year contracts in 2017 and 2019. This time, Dhaliwal tweets that Grant will get a three-year pact with an average annual value of $1.5MM.
146 of Grant’s 264 career NHL games have been spent in Anaheim, though he seemingly finds himself on the move every year. In 2019-20 he ended up on the Philadelphia Flyers by the end of the season and actually fit in quite well, showing his versatility and adding a little bit of scoring punch to the bottom-six.
A $1.5MM salary doesn’t mean he has to provide more than he has in the past, but Grant has secured a three-year contract for the first time since 2011. That stability will hopefully let him play a full season for one team, though obvious Anaheim hasn’t had a problem trading him in the past.
Calgary Flames Sign Four Players
The Calgary Flames have brought in several depth players, re-signing Buddy Robinson and adding Alexander Petrovic, Byron Froese and Zac Rinaldo. Froese has signed a two-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $725K, Rinaldo has inked a one-year, two-way contract worth $700K, Robinson has signed a one-year, one-way contract worth $700K and Petrovic’s contract details have not yet been released.
In fact, Petrovic hasn’t been an effective option in the NHL since the 2017-18 season. Once a regular in the Florida Panthers lineup, he suited up just 37 times between Florida and Edmonton in 2018-19 and then spent the entire 2019-20 season with the Providence Bruins. Still just 28, he’ll serve as minor league depth for the Flames next year.
Robinson meanwhile is a veteran AHL scorer, who put up 32 points in 45 games this season for the Stockton Heat. He did get into five games at the NHL and even played in a playoff game for Calgary, but is not expected to spend much time at the highest level.
Mark Jankowski Signs With Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed another bottom-six forward, inking Mark Jankowski. Jankowski was not given a qualifying offer from the Calgary Flames and became an unrestricted free agent. He has signed a one-year deal worth just $700K. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford released a statement on the deal:
Mark is another versatile player that gives us an option at the center position. His added experience on the penalty kill, where he has had success over the last few seasons, makes him a good fit for our team.
Pittsburgh needed to add some depth forwards in free agency, but Jankowski could actually still be more than just a fourth-line option. The 26-year-old was originally a first-round pick in 2012 and scored 17 goals as a rookie in 2017-18. Though his offense has dropped off since then, he is a legitimate NHL forward that will now be extremely inexpensive for the Penguins.
In fact, it could have even made sense for the Flames to issue the $1.75MM qualifying offer that Jankowski was owed. Those two sides seemed destined for a breakup, but there is real value here for the Penguins even in a limited role.
The Penguins also inked minor league forward Josh Currie, announcing a one-year, two-way minimum deal.
Arizona Coyotes Sign Tyler Pitlick, John Hayden
The Arizona Coyotes have added a pair of bottom-six options, signing Tyler Pitlick to a two-year contract according to his agent Ben Hankinson and John Hayden to a one-year deal per TSN’s Darren Drager. The Pitlick deal will carry an average annual value of $1.75MM, while the Hayden contract is for $750K.
Pitlick, 28, is a bang-and-crash winger that recorded eight goals and 20 points this season for the Philadelphia Flyers. Scoring double-digit goals just once in his career, he nevertheless adds a little bit of punch on the third or fourth line and does all of his damage at even-strength. Hayden, 25, has never played in more than 54 NHL games in a season and is not one to produce much offense, but is an injection of energy and physicality when needed.
Still, neither player really helps a team that has lacked high-end scoring talent for years. The Coyotes tried to address that problem with Phil Kessel and then Taylor Hall, but both players failed to live up to expectations. Pitlick will add a little bit of versatility and bit to the bottom-six, but the Coyotes still don’t have a go-to offensive weapon up front.
Dallas Stars Re-Sign Anton Khudobin
The Dallas Stars may not lose their playoff hero after all. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that the expectation is that Anton Khudobin will sign a new three-year contract with the Stars worth $3.33MM per season. LeBrun relays the full breakdown:
- 2020-21: $2.5MM
- 2021-22: $3.75MM
- 2022-23: $3.75MM
That will certainly settle the nerves of Stars fans who were worried about losing the goaltender that carried them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, but it also means the team will be paying almost $8.5MM to a pair of aging goaltenders. Khudobin, 34, gets a bit of a raise over the $2.5MM he earned last season, while Ben Bishop is still under contract at $4.92MM for the next three years.
It also means that Jake Oettinger, who was selected in the first round in 2017, will have to wait even longer to get his chance at the NHL level. Oettinger is heading into the second year of his entry-level contract but will be an RFA before either NHL goaltender comes off the books.
Still, Khudobin clearly deserved a multi-year contract after his performance this year. Not only did he star in the postseason for the Stars, but he also led the league in save percentage during the regular season when he posted a .930 in 30 appearances. The career-backup is one of the best tandem options in the league and will now be paid like one.
Dallas meanwhile still has three important restricted free agents to sign, meaning their $10MM in cap space doesn’t leave much to spend on another free agent. Radek Faksa, Denis Gurianov and Roope Hintz are three of the most important players on the team and will all need raises at some point this offseason.
Evan Rodrigues Signs With Pittsburgh Penguins
After being included in a trade earlier this summer, Evan Rodrigues is headed back to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The forward ended up going unqualified by the Toronto Maple Leafs after they acquired him as part of the package for Kasperi Kapanen, meaning he was an unrestricted free agent that could sign anywhere. Well, he decided to return to Pittsburgh, signing a one-year contract worth $700K. GM Jim Rutherford released a statement on the deal:
We were pleased with Evan’s play during his brief stint with us last season. His versatility and ability to play all three forward positions, especially center, is an asset that gives us options and adds depth to our forward group.
Rodrigues, 27, has shown glimpses of high-end NHL talent over his short career but never quite put things together for a long stretch. An undrafted free agent signing by the Buffalo Sabres out of Boston University, he has 72 points in 199 career NHL games including a career-high of 29 in the 2018-19 season.
In Pittsburgh, he’ll be battling for a bottom-six role but can provide some nice depth for a team that is still trying to win the Stanley Cup. Undrafted college free agents have found a ton of success over the years in the Penguins organization, hopefully Rodrigues can be the next example of that.
Vancouver Canucks Sign Braden Holtby
The Vancouver Canucks won’t re-sign Jacob Markstrom, but they’ll bring in a Vezina Trophy winner to replace him. The team is expected to sign Braden Holtby to a two-year contract worth a total of $8.6MM, according to several reports including Dan Murphy of Sportsnet.
Holtby joins Thatcher Demko in Vancouver’s net on an extremely reasonable contract that won’t hamstring the Canucks as they move forward. In fact, given that the team will likely protect Demko in the Seattle expansion draft, it will be interesting to see if Holtby even plays out the full two-year term in Vancouver.
For now though, Holtby joins a team that already went deep into the playoffs and has some of the best young players in the NHL. Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will only improve in the coming years and now have a goaltender behind them that has won almost everything possible in the NHL.
A Vezina, Jennings and Stanley Cup winner, Holtby has put up a .916 save percentage in 468 regular season appearances. That number dropped dramatically in 2019-20, but having just turned 31 there are many who believe Holtby can bounce-back.
Kyle Turris, Alan Quine Sign With Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers have signed Kyle Turris to a two-year contract, bringing him in just a few days after the Nashville Predators bought him out of the last four years of his previous deal. Turris, who is already earning $2MM from the Predators in each of the next eight years, will get another $1.65MM average annual value from the Oilers.
The Oilers have also signed Alan Quine according to Darren Dreger of TSN. Quine will earn $750K on a one-year deal. Though it won’t turn as many heads, PuckPedia reports that Seth Griffith is also headed to Edmonton on a two-year, two-way contract that carries a $725K cap hit at the NHL level. Not to be confused with a much-needed upgrade on the NHL roster, the club has also added some minor league depth in net with the addition of Anton Forsberg on a one-year contract. All of these deals have been confirmed by the Oilers.
Turris, 31, was what the Predators received in that infamous three-way Matt Duchene deal, but he never was able to live up to the huge contract extension they immediately handed him. Now bought out he can afford to take a much cheaper deal to play in Edmonton, where he can slot in as the team’s third-line center behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
That’s a pretty good place to get your career back on track and Turris could be a perfect fit for the Oilers. The veteran forward has shown an ability to score in bunches, even reaching a career-high of 27 goals a few years ago.