NHL free agency opened on Sunday and the Minnesota Wild didn’t waste much time in coming to terms with a bunch of free agents, among them, Minnesota natives J.T. Brown and Matt Hendricks.
Brown, a Burnsville native, spent the first six seasons of his NHL career with the Tampa Bay Lightning before being traded to the Anaheim Ducks last season.
Hearing the #mnwild are talking to former UMD Bulldog J.T. Brown.
Makes sense, speedy right wing. Scored a ton in college
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) July 1, 2018
Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Hendricks is coming to the Wild on a one year deal worth approximately $700,000. Brown, as Russo mentioned, did score a lot while in college with the UMD Bulldogs, but he has just 20 goals and 44 assists in 304 career NHL games.
Brown will turn 28 years old on Monday.
Hendricks turned 37 years old two weeks ago. The Blaine native helped the Winnipeg Jets knocked the Wild out of the playoffs this past season and he five goals and eight assists in 60 games during the regular season.
Perhaps the biggest move of the day is the Wild signing defenseman Greg Pateryn to a three-year deal worth $6.75 million.
Pateryn, who played a regular role on the Dallas blue line last season, was ranked as the 36th-best unrestricted free agent by Pro Hockey Talk. The right-shot defenseman set career highs in games played (73) and ranked second on Dallas with 155 blocked shots.
Minnesota also announced a new three-year deal with defenseman Nick Seeler, who was a restricted free agent.
Other players signed by the Wild:
- left wing Mike Liambas
- defenseman Matt Bartkowski
- goalie Andrew Hammond
- center Eric Fehr
The NHL signing period opened at 11 a.m. Sunday.
