Fringe Signings (June 29)

Early on Monday morning, the word came down that the Pittsburgh Penguins signed defenseman Ian Cole to a new 3-year deal, worth $6.3 million.

Cole finished outside of the pool worthiness of the positional scoring, ranking 104th among all defenders, picking up 5 goals and 17 points in 74 games between St. Louis and Pittsburgh last season.  Cole was certainly more effective after the trade, picking up 8 points in 20 games with his new club, possibly a number to look at more closely at draft time this year.

Right now, I could see Cole as a second pairing defender, which could turn around some better points next season.

The Chicago Blackhawks can still make a few signings before they have to hit the panic button on some trades this Summer, so the announcement of the David Rundblad deal, a 2-year, $2 million deal, shouldn't come as a terrible surprise.

The 24-year old Swede didn't get enough ice-time to be a pool-worthy defender in 2015, playing in 49 games and scoring 3 goals and 14 points, but with Chicago's cap crunch issues, he quickly becomes a fringe signing, looking inward on more minutes.  It's a good deal for the club and not a bad deal for the defenseman, especially since he hasn't been counted on yet for much.

I would keep Rundblad in your notes, even if he is a late depth defender.

At the end of the work day on Monday, the Vancouver Canucks came out with a couple of fringe signings of their own. The earlier of the two, saw forward Linden Vey sign a 1-year deal, reportedly worth $1 million, while the latter of the two, saw goalie Jacob Markstrom sign a 2-year deal, cap numbers not disclosed at the time of writing this post.

Vey may have been less of a fringe signing, since his numbers were less than fantastic in 2015, scoring 10 goals and 24 points in 75 games for the big club, but it isn't like they can't improve from there at all.

Markstrom, on the other hand, will be the team's back-up goalie for next season and it remains to be seen, just how much time he is going to get.  After a stellar season in the AHL, there are going to be some high expectations on him, which should bring him into the conversation at the hockey pool draft.

We might be really reaching here, but a 5-year, $15.85 million deal should say fringe, at least. The San Jose Sharks took care of soon-to-be restricted free agent blueliner Brenden Dillon with this new deal, which will have in their uniform for quite a while, likely expecting better numbers than his 2015 season.  Speaking of which, was 2 goals and 10 points in 80 games, split between Dallas and San Jose.

Dillon has some upside to his game, but with the overall struggles of both teams, his numbers certainly were down.  I'm not too sure how the Sharks are prepared to fare in 2016, so I might be hesitant to put too much stock in Dillon and some of his mates.