Monday, June 22, 2015

Fringe Signings (June 22)

Late on Monday afternoon, the Vancouver Canucks announced the signing of forward Ronalds Kenins, who managed to play in 30 games in the back half of the season, not to mention a couple of playoff appearances, picking up 12 points in regular play.  His scoring rate, if he was to have been a regular all year long, would have put him in the 35-point range and a low end forward in a real deep draft.  His play was decent enough to keep a spark in their lineup, but a 1-year, $575,000 contract seems to indicate that he may not be the first choice in the bottom six.

The Canucks are not the healthiest of cap ceiling teams in this off-season, so if things don't go terribly well in the contract department, a guy like Kenins and his low cap hit, may be appealing to management, as a roster regular.

Possibly even more of a fringe player, only by default at this point, but the New Jersey Devils re-signed goalie Scott Wedgewood to a new 2-year deal, worth $587,500 per season. The Devils didn't have another goalie signed behind their number one, Cory Schneider, so with this signing, we have an early favourite for the team's back-up, but it's still very early in the process.  Wedgewood, 22, has yet to register an NHL minute played, but he has spent the last couple years in the AHL and is obviously coming around well enough for a new deal.

Schneider was a minute pig in 2015, so Devils back-ups were not very busy, nor were they great for the hockey pool.  I would imagine that the Devils coaching staff are thinking very much the same again this year, so it may not even matter who is sitting on the bench for Jersey this season.






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