Chicago Blackhawks re-sign Peter Regin, sign 3 to AHL contracts
The Chicago Blackhawks aren’t expected to be major players in free agency this year with little in the way of salary cap space and big extensions coming soon for Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
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However, general manager Stan Bowman made a flurry of minor moves today with the re-signing of Peter Regin to a one-year deal worth $650,000 and signing three players to AHL contracts. Forwards Cody Bass, 27, and Pierre-Cedric Labrie, 27, and goaltender Scott Darling, 25, , a Lemont, Ill. native were signed to one-year deals.
Regin, 28, was acquired in a trade with the New York Islanders last February and had two goals and four points in 17 regular-season games, and was a non-factor in five Stanley Cup Playoff games, registering nary a point.
Between the Islanders and Blackhawks, Regin had four goals and 11 points in 61 games.
The Blackhawks will have to get creative to address the center position behind Toews and re-signing the veteran Regin is a low-cost option that won’t break the bank like the St. Louis Blues did when they gave $28 million to Paul Stastny over four years and the Dallas Stars did in trading for former Ottawa Senators center Jason Spezza.
The Blackhawks have Teuvo Teravainen waiting in the wings which would be another low-cost option for head coach Joel Quenneville to pencil as the No. 2 center and flanked by Kane. Andrew Shaw finished the season as the team’s No. 2 center in between Kane and Brandon Saad and could be another option for the Blackhawks.
Don’t expect Chicago to sign any players to long or rich deals unless they trade a player with a high salary such as Patrick Sharp or Johnny Oduya.