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Chicago inks Rozsival to one-year extension

Nashville Predators v Chicago Blackhawks

Michal Rozsival

NHLI via Getty Images

After patiently waiting all summer, Michal Rozsival finally has a new contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks announced that they have signed the 37-year-old defenseman to a one-year deal. Because he didn’t have a contract in time for the start of training camp, he initially reported to the team on a tryout basis.

The financial terms of his contract weren’t immediately known, but Chicago had a little less than $1 million in available cap space, per General Fanager.

Update: His new deal comes with a $600K cap hit, although he can earn up to $200K extra in bonuses tied to games played, according to ESPN’s Scott Powers.

This signing gives Chicago six defensemen inked to one-way deals, including Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Trevor Daley, and David Rundblad. Given that Trevor van Riemsdyk is also likely to make the team, the odds of PTO blueliners Lubomir Visnovsky or Jan Hejda playing for Chicago now appears remote unless the team opts to go with eight defensemen.

While Rozsival will likely be used as a third pairing defenseman this season and might even be listed as a healthy scratch a decent amount of time, the veteran does provide Chicago with some important depth.

That being said, he still hasn’t completely recovered from the ankle injury that knocked him out of Chicago’s 2015 Stanley Cup run on May 7, per TSN’s Frank Seravalli.