Yesterday the Blackhawks were able to sign a second line center in Brad Richards on the first day of free agency. With Michal Handzus out of the picture, the Blackhawks needed to find someone to fill that role. Thankfully, the Blackhawks snagged Richards at a pretty decent price, giving him a contract for one year at just $2 million.
While much coveted Paul Statsny moved from Colorado to Blackhawks division rival St. Louis Blues yesterday as well, he wasn’t really a realistic signing given the Hawks cap situation. There were some rumors going around about the idea of transitioning winger Andrew Shaw to a center, but we all saw how well that worked out for him and the Blackhawks a couple years ago. Luckily, the Hawks will not be going through another one of those experiments again.
Blackhawks sign Brad Richards
Last season with the Rangers, Richards recorded 51 points in the regular season, tallying 20 goals and 31 assists. He also made it to the Stanley Cup finals producing quite well along the way with 5 goals and 12 points in the playoffs. As a second line center, Richards is going to be very effective on the Blackhawks team next year, with the potential of playing alongside Patrick Kane, Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, and Bryan Bickell. Coach Joel Quenneville and the Blackhawks do not usually stick with set lines, so he could be playing with any combination of those great wingers that the Hawks have at the moment.
Many thought that Teuvo Teravainen may be the answer to the Blackhawks second line center problem, but he showed in the 7 games that he played with Chicago last year that he is not fully developed or ready for the NHL yet. At only 19 years old Teuvo Teravainen is only 5’11” and listed at 169 pounds, he definitely has some bulking up to do before he can come in and become a second line center in the NHL. Blackhawks fans will have to wait just a little longer for “Teuvo Time”.
Another deal the Blackhawks were able to make was the re-signing of veteran centerman Peter Regin. The Blackhawks picked him up in a trade last year with the New York Islanders and he has proved to be valuable, showing up in a couple big moments for the Hawks in the playoffs last year. They were able to re-sign Regin for only $650,000.
The Blackhawks were also able to re-sign some youngsters in Ben Smith, Jeremy Morin, and goaltender Antii Raanta. They extended the contract of Jeremy Morin two more years through the 2016 season, he produced 11 points in only 24 games in the 2013-2014 season, which included a 4 game goal scoring streak.
The other two, Smith and Raanta, both unrestricted free agents were signed to two year deals through the 2016 season as well. Ben Smith is a gritty guy who gets into the dirty areas on the ice. In 75 games played for the Hawks this season, he put up 26 points.
Antii Raanta was very solid for the Blackhawks as a backup behind Crawford last year, and came up big when Crawford was out with injury (SIA Profile) near the beginning of the season. Raanta recorded a 13-5-4 record, a 2.71 GAA, and a .897 save percentage.
Overall, the Blackhawks have had a good start to the off-season, making key re-signings, and they were able to fill their most needed position for only $2 million in getting Brad Richards. Re-signing the young guys they did, and the farm system they have in place assures that they have a very bright future ahead of. I cannot wait to see Brad Richards in that red sweater next year and hopefully lead us back to the playoffs and ultimately back to the Stanley Cup.
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