Jamie Oleksiak has re-signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Oleksiak was traded from the Dallas Stars to the Penguins last season. The contract is a three-year deal worth $6.4125 million, or $2.1375 million per season AAV. The two sides avoided an upcoming arbitration hearing.
The Penguins have re-signed defenseman @jamieoleksiak to a three-year contract.
The deal runs through the 2020.21 campaign and it carries an average annual value of $2,137,500.
Details: https://t.co/kQDQd4OMaC pic.twitter.com/zzveS3WdMU
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 12, 2018
Pittsburgh Penguins Re-Sign Jamie Oleksiak
Oleksiak has been known as a big body throughout his career but he brought some offence to his game when he came to Pittsburgh. With the Penguins, he had four goals and 14 points in 47 games. Before that, his highest points during a single season was just seven. He also tied a career high in goals this season with five (he had one with the Stars). Oleksiak finished the season with 69 minutes in penalties with Pittsburgh (87 overall). He put up a 51.2 percent Corsi-For and -1.8 relative Corsi with the Penguins.
Oleksiak seemed to rediscover his game with the Penguins. He worked closely with Penguins defensive coach Sergei Gonchar. Gonchar previously worked with Justin Schultz to fine tune his game.
This was some of his handy work:
He has a booming slap shot and he’s not afraid to unleash it. He also had a slap-shot goal in the playoffs against the Washington Capitals in Game 5 to open the scoring. There were lots of bodies in front of the net and he wasn’t afraid to let it go and see what happens.
For the team, he’s a solid third pairing defenseman who can put up a little offence and is still improving in that area. For his size, he moves the puck extremely well up the ice and into the offensive zone. Defensively, he’s also improving as he was able to be much better in his own zone with the Penguins and not look lost when he did in Dallas.
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