While the big fish of this year’s crop of NHL free agents, Alex Pietrangelo and Taylor Hall, didn’t put pen to paper through the second day of the window officially being open, teams like the Winnipeg Jets — who won’t be taking swings that big this off-season — continued to fill out their rosters.
The Jets started Saturday off by signing journeyman centre Nate Thompson to a one-year pact worth $750,000.
Thompson spent last season between the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers, recording 15 points and 30 penalty minutes in 70 games.
He also suited up in 16 playoff games for the Flyers — notching a goal, and 14 PIMs.
The Jets’ sweater will be the ninth different one Thompson has donned at the NHL level in his 15-year professional career, after being drafted in the sixth round, 183rd overall, by the Boston Bruins in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.
The new contract came on an important anniversary for Thompson, who has been vocal about his struggles with addiction in the past.
Thompson is expected to fill the void left by long-time Winnipegger Cody Eakin, who was traded to Winnipeg at last year’s trade deadline by Vegas but signed a two-year contract with the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
Nick Shore, another forward who served in a bottom-six role for the Jets last season, is still a free agent.
The Jets also brought back left-winger C.J. Suess on a two-year, two-way contract worth an average annual value of $725,000.
One of the bright spots on a Manitoba Moose team that was last in their division when the AHL season was stopped, Suess had 13 goals and 14 assists in 57 games last season.
He also recorded his first 6:26 of NHL action in a Jets win over the San Jose Sharks in November.
Suess was a fifth-round pick of the Jets in the 2014 draft and has recorded 51 points in 89 AHL games over 3 seasons.
The Jets finished Saturday off with a late-night signing, bringing in forward Dominic Tonanato on a one-year, two-way contract worth $700,000.
Tonanato spent last season with the Florida Panthers organization, recording 11 points in 41 games at the NHL level — and eight more points in 15 games with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds.
A fifth-round pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2012, Tonanato has split time between the minor leagues and the NHL in all three of his professional seasons and got his first taste of NHL playoff action in three games with the Panthers last summer.
As the Jets begin the third day of free agency, salary cap tracking website CapFriendly projects the team to have $1,027,144 in available cap space — with four restricted free agents left unsigned, in Jack Roslovic, Sami Niku, Jansen Harkens and Nelson Nogier.
Comments