The Arizona Coyotes signed free agent forward Lawson Crouse to a three-year contract. The new deal will be for $4.6 million. Crouse is coming off of his three-year entry level contract where he had a $894,167 cap hit. This contract carries him through the 2020-21 season. The team had only $1.7 million of cap space after acquiring both Carl Soderberg ($4.75M) from the Colorado Avalanche and Phil Kessel ($6.8M) from the Pittsburgh Penguins last week.
It’s official. 3 more years of @LawCrouse. ?
Details: https://t.co/dUxf2f3uVU pic.twitter.com/7YYgFBAqlV
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) July 2, 2019
Lawson Crouse Signs With the Arizona Coyotes
Over his three-year NHL career Crouse has played for the Arizona Coyotes. He has put up 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 career points in 164 career games. He was originally drafted in the first round, 11th overall of the 2015 NHL draft by the Florida Panthers.
Last season he scored 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points. He also added a team leading 67 minutes in penalties. His possession numbers were 44.8 percent Corsi and a relative Corsi of -5.3.
“We are very pleased to sign Lawson to a multi-year contract,” said general manager John Chayka. “He had a very good season last year and really established himself as an NHL power forward. We look forward to having him in our lineup.”
What This Means for the Future
The 6’4″, 220-pound Crouse is a physical player who will be on the ice to protect players like Clayton Keller and newly acquired Phil Kessel. Crouse knows the physical end of the game but has learned how to be a valuable fourth-line contributor as well. He has become more of a presence in front of the opposing team’s net to help with screening the goalie as well as grabbing rebounds and deflections.
The Arizona Coyotes needed to sign Crouse and they did. Now they may want to add a Josh Archibald or Nick Cousins to go along with Crouse on that fourth line. Both Archibald and Cousins were effective in that role. They both did not however receive a qualifying offer from the team. They still may, but the team will need to add Marion Hossa‘s $5.275M contract to the long-team injured reserve list to acquire some additional cap space.
