The Pittsburgh Penguins still have some work to do - or salary arbitration hearings to endure? - during this summer, but they took care of two restricted free agents on Wednesday.
The team announced one-way contracts for defenseman Derrick Pouliot (pictured) and forward Josh Archibald.
Pouliot, 23, received a one-year contract worth $800K. Archibald, 24, signed for two years with a cap hit of $675K. Those terms were disclosed by the team.
As the eighth overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft, Pouliot’s development remains the most interesting. He’s actually seen his NHL reps decrease each season; Pouliot went from 34 regular-season games in 2014-15 to 22 in 2015-16 and just 11 last season. He did appear in two postseason contests during Pittsburgh’s 2016 Stanley Cup run.
(The Penguins note that he made the AHL All-Star Team twice, so at least there’s that.)
Archibald has 11 games of regular-season experience under his belt, while he saw limited ice time (7:51 per game) in four appearances during the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Penguins still have bigger RFA situations to settle, as both Conor Sheary and Brian Dumoulin await salary arbitration hearings. At the moment, there’s some belief that the Penguins will go through hearings with each player. If so, that would be a pretty rare experience in recent years.
Either way, it sounds like Pouliot and Archibald both have chances to make bigger waves with Pittsburgh going forward.