CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins signed one of their pending restricted free agents to a new deal on Monday afternoon.
Ron Hextall announced that the Penguins re-signed forward Alex Nylander to a one-year, two-way contract that pays $750,000 at the NHL level.
The only thing a two-way contract affects is a player's pay at the minor-league level and has no bearing on where a player can actually play or their waiver status. Nylander will require waivers beginning next season in order to be assigned to the AHL as a result of having played five seasons.
Nylander was set to be a restricted free agent this offseason. The deadline to qualify restricted free agents and retain their rights was 5 p.m. on Monday. Instead of doing that, the Penguins just signed him to a full contract.
The Penguins acquired Nylander in January in a one-for-one trade that sent Sam Lafferty to the Blackhawks.
Nylander, 24, spent the remainder of the season in Wilkes-Barre, where he scored 14 goals and 16 assists in 44 games to finish the season. He spent much of his time in Wilkes-Barre on the left side of the second line alongside Sam Poulin, though shifted to the right side in the last month-plus of the season.
He had a pretty silky move for a shootout-winner in February, too:
Nylander scored three goals and three assists in six playoff games, including the overtime winner in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the first round to eliminate the rival Hershey Bears. It was the biggest goal anyone scored for Wilkes-Barre all season:
"I saw that the D wasn't gapping up on me when I got the puck from (Radim Zohorna)," Nylander told me of the goal after the game. "So I thought I was just going to take it in, actually fake go in, and keep going in the middle. But after I made my move, I thought I should just shoot it, and it was awesome. It was really nice that it went in and it was a huge win for us. It's unbelievable to be ready here for a second round."
Nylander's ability to produce offensively wasn't ever in question. Coach J.D. Forrest said the adjustment process for him was about playing with pace and his defensive responsibilities, two things that are pretty important if a player wants a shot to play with the big club. There were questions regarding Nylander's work ethic at the time of the trade, but the coaching staff never saw anything that suggested Nylander's work ethic was an issue once he made it to Wilkes-Barre.
"For him playing in Pittsburgh's system, it's more adjusting to that consistent pace, and the fact that every single player is counted on to do certain things, regardless of your skill level, or your position in the lineup, or any of that, which I think he's grasping," Forrest told me. "We've had no issues with how hard he's worked or what he's willing to do out there since we've gotten him. ... I feel like his work ethic is much better than maybe advertised. What he's been putting out, his effort on the ice every night has been solid. You can see that he's definitely paying attention to those different areas of the game that we really value that may not be on the offensive side."
Nylander made progress with his pace and defensive game over the course of the season, and now seems to be in a position where he can compete for a spot in the NHL next season, at least as a midseason call up.
