It didn’t take long for new Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford to make his first free agent signing.
But it wasn’t the forward that many expected it to be.
Linked to several unrestricted free agent forwards on the market, the Penguins instead targeted another defenseman, inking veteran Christian Ehroff to a one-year deal that will pay the left-hand shooting blue liner $4 million next season.
Ehrhoff, who is set to turn 32 on July 6, was set to enter the fourth season of a 10-year deal worth $40 million. However the Buffalo Sabres officially used a compliance buyout to make him a free agent.
It wasn’t the best season for Ehrhoff with the Sabres in 2013-14. In 79 games played, he had six goals and 27 assists, but his plus-minus of minus-27 was by far the worst of his career. He’s played much better in the past, even setting the plus-minus franchise record for the Vancouver Canucks during the 2009-10 season at plus-36.
With the Penguins likely to lose defensemen Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen in free agency, targeting a veteran defenseman does make some sense, but with the amount of young defensemen that the Pens currently have in their pipeline, you have to wonder if spending $4 million on a player like Ehrhoff really should have been the team’s top priority.
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