Blackhawks Sign Brian Campbell

Shortly after free agency kicked off, the Blackhawks signed defenseman Brian Campbell to a 1-year deal worth a total of $2.25 million per Pierre LeBrun. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Campbell wanted to play in Chicago, but it looks like he gave the Hawks a heck of a discount to do so, as George Richards is reporting that the Panthers offered him just short of $5 million on a 1-year deal.

Campbell is a great get for the Hawks, whose lack of defensive depth this year was one of the primary reasons they didn’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs. Last year in Florida, Campbell had 31 points (6 G, 25 A) and averaged 22:17 on the ice per game. With the additions of Campbell and Michal Kempny, they’ve turned a weakness into a strength. Also, Michal Rozsival re-upped this week for one year at $600K. I don’t know how much Rozsival has left in the tank, but I’m not mad at spending $600K on someone whose floor is “veteran defensive depth.” After these moves, this was Mark Lazerus’ guess at what the Hawks could look like:

For fun:

Motte-Toews-Panik
Panarin-Anisimov-Kane
Desjardins-Kruger-Hossa
Kero-Rasmussen-Hartman

Keith-Hjalm
Campbell-Seabrook
Kempny-TvR

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) July 1, 2016

Ignore the forwards part. I think he’s pretty far off on that. But the defensive pairings look pretty good.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com