Report: Blackhawks sign Jarred Tinordi to one-year extension
The Chicago Blackhawks will reportedly be keeping veteran defenseman Jarred Tinordi around for another season, according to this report from Ben Pope of the Sun-Times:
The Blackhawks have signed Jarred Tinordi to a 1-year contract extension with a $1.25 million cap hit, per a source.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) April 11, 2023
After a decade of bouncing around, Tinordi has truly found his niche in Chicago: https://t.co/Wh4MkyvMAK
It's been a rough season for Tinordi, who's dealt with a rash of injuries, including a facial fracture back in December after a slapshot hit him in the face.
Here's a look at the Jarred Tinordi injury from Sunday. He had surgery the next day to fix some fractures in his face after taking a puck to the mouth and is expected to be out for a while. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/yBI6m3VzGO
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 20, 2022
And that was not long after he'd recovered from a facial laceration after a skate blade cut him open under the chin.
Here's where Jarred Tinordi got hit in the mouth. It happened literally seconds into the game and he didn't play another shift in the first period. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/Qah0bF2fex
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 10, 2022
The 31-year-old defenseman played in 44 games this season with 8 points (2 G, 6 A) while averaging 16:27 of ice time. The average ice time mark is the only one of those that isn't a career-high for Tinordi, who's been a journeyman for the other stages of his career with stops in Montreal, Arizona, Boston, Nashville and New York prior to Chicago. Tinordi came to the Blackhawks as a waiver claim from the Rangers in October and was playing on the final year of a contract with a $900,000 cap hit.
He'll get a modest raise to $1.25 million per this report, but that's far from a detriment to Chicago's current financial status. It does mean that there are now four veteran defenseman under contract four next season, though: Tinordi, Seth Jones, Connor Murphy and Nikita Zaitsev. Caleb Jones and Ian Mitchell are restricted free agents, while Andreas Englund is an unrestricted free agent.
With several blue-line prospects potentially on the verge of making the leap to the NHL next season ā including Wyatt Kaiser, Alex Vlasic and 2022 No. 7 overall pick Kevin Korchinski ā it is starting to a look a bit crowded on that part of the organizational depth chart right now.
One other item to note from Tuesday afternoon: longtime Blackhawks head athletic trainer Mike Gapski will be retiring at the end of this season:
We'll celebrate Gapper during his last game this Thursday š„³ These stats are cumulative from this final season.
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) April 11, 2023
