Blackhawks expected to sign veteran winger to four-year deal
Tyler Bertuzzi.
Multiple reports overnight indicate the Blackhawks are expected to land winger Tyler Bertuzzi when the UFA market opens at 11 a.m. CT Monday, although Daily Faceoff’s Jay Rosehill was on it first. It’ll be a four-year, $22M deal ($5.5M AAV), David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
Chicago will be Bertuzzi’s first turn after a one-year stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Bertuzzi joined Toronto on a one-year, $5.5M deal last summer and proceeded to have a fine year, netting 21 goals and 43 points in 80 games. He also added four points in seven postseason games.
It was a middling performance, though still a step up from Bertuzzi’s 2022-23 campaign. He kicked off that year with 14 points in 29 games with the Detroit Red Wings before being traded to the Boston Bruins at the 2023 Trade Deadline in exchange for a 2024 first-round pick and 2025 fourth-round pick.
Bertuzzi managed a modest 16 points in 21 regular season games with Boston, though he found his spark when the team needed him — tallying 10 points, split evenly, in seven games during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Bertuzzi looked comfortable in Boston after spending the previous six seasons with the Red Wings. Detroit originally drafted Bertuzzi in the second half of the 2013 NHL Draft’s second round, promoting him to the NHL in the 2016-17 season.
And while he was able to set a trend of topping 45 points each season in Detroit, there were concerns about how his rough-and-tumble style would translate to a new scene. That made a strong performance with the Bruins imperative — and Bertuzzi held up enough to convince Toronto that it was missing his top-of-the-lineup grit.
But Bertuzzi wasn’t able to carve out too comfortable of a role with the Leafs. He spent the year bouncing around the team’s top six, as it looked for how to best deploy its new additions of Bertuzzi and Max Domi. In the end, it was Domi who found more comfort next to stars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner — ultimately kicking Bertuzzi down to the second line.
Toronto, amidst its typical cap crunch, was only expected to keep one of these new additions and made its choice by delivering a four-year extension to Domi.
That leaves Bertuzzi free to join an up-and-coming Blackhawks club. He joins the lineup as, presently, their highest-paid forward, speaking to the leadership role he’ll have over a group of young forwards, headlined by star youngsters Connor Bedard and Artyom Levshunov.
Bertuzzi could vie for a role on Bedard’s line, sat opposite of Taylor Hall, though it seems more likely that the Hawks keep Philipp Kurashev next to their star and use Bertuzzi to offer a punch on the second line. If that is the role he finds himself in, Bertuzzi will instead be supporting top prospect Frank Nazar, who’s poised for his rookie season after signing an entry-level contract this summer.
A four-year deal will carry Bertuzzi through his age-33 season in 2027-28. With a Bertuzzi signing, Chicago has $23.4M in cap space, with one forward spot and three defense spots still open. Some of those roles could go to prospects like Nick Lardis, Ethan Del Mastro or Nolan Allan — though Chicago still has plenty of budget for other free agent additions.
Want more articles like this? Follow Pro Hockey Rumors on MSN to see more of our exclusive NHL content.
More must-reads:
Trending slideshow: The best possible fictional hockey team (Provided by Yardbarker)