The Chicago Blackhawks have signed centre, Lucas Wallmark, to a one-year contract worth $950,000. Last season Wallmark played with the Carolina Hurricanes before being traded at the trade deadline to the Florida Panthers.
Hearing UFA Lucas Wallmark has agreed to terms with the Chicago Blackhawks. One year, $950k.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 12, 2020
Lucas Wallmark Signs With Chicago
The Swedish centre was a restricted free agent for the Panthers going into this season’s free agency period. He wasn’t given a qualifying offer. In 67 games last season, Wallmark put up 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 points on the season. A great depth piece down the middle, Wallmark won over half of his draws at the dot this past season. He was also a valued asset to the Hurricanes’ penalty kill, having a great defensive aspect to his game.
What This Means For The Future
A former fourth-round pick for the Hurricanes, Wallmark has the potential to hit the 30-point marker. Being added to a Chicago offence that has struggled to put up offence outside of their top guys, this is a good move by general manager, Stan Bowman. The signing comes hours after the team had signed forward Mattias Janmark to a contract. With both of these signings it looks like Bowman is trying to take some of the pressure off of his defence, which struggled immensely last season to stop any kind of rush from opposing teams. Those two, along with current Blackhawks centre David Kampf make up for a formidable group of defensive-minded forwards that Bowman and head coach Jeremy Colliton could spread out in the lineup.
The Blackhawks played in the postseason for the first time since 2017 this summer. In nine games this playoffs, the team gave up a whopping 30 goals. Their recent moves seem to be addressing the defensive hole in their game that they have been lacking the past few seasons. The team’s playoff standing going into next season is unclear. Only time will tell to see if these moves were what they needed to push them over the hump.
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