This bit of news will surely get buried beneath the revelation that, after a courtship with his old team, Jaromir Jagr has signed with the Philadelphia Flyers. But the Penguins did bolster their group of forwards Friday by re-signing Tyler Kennedy, apparently to a two-year, $4 million deal.
That’s a very reasonable rate for a player who’s young and fairly effective, so with Jagr now unavailable, it looks like the Penguins will have a bit of money to look for forwards in free agency.
Kennedy, who turns 25 on July 15, had 21 goals and 24 assists for the Penguins in 2010-2011. As Dan Hopper points out, many of those points came as the result of the absences of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and Kennedy is unlikely to repeat those numbers if those players are healthy. Still, if anything two years and $2 million is a bit less than I would have expected Kennedy to get. He’s a nice player to continue to have around.