The Detroit Red Wings announced today via Twitter and their website the re-signing of 24-year-old right winger Teemu Pulkkinen. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports on Twitter that the deal is worth $812k.
Pulkkinen, a fourth round pick of the Red Wings in 2010, played 36 games for the Red Wings last year, scoring six goals, and adding six assists. In his career, Pulkkinen has played 70 NHL games, scoring 11 goals, and nine assists. Pulkkinen would have to be waived to be sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s AHL affiliate, so it’s more likely he’ll be given an NHL spot. Other right wingers on the Red Wings include Tomas Jurco, Gustav Nyquist, and Johan Franzen, though the latter missed all but two games last year with concussion issues.
The Red Wings now have a little under $3.3MM in cap space, still needing to re-sign two restricted free agents, defenseman Danny DeKeyser, and goaltender Petr Mrazek. This will be somewhat difficult to pull off, given they combined to make almost that last year, but Detroit also has eighteen forwards under contract, giving them a lot of movable assets, and given the likelihood of Johan Franzen spending another season on the long-term injured reserve, they shouldn’t have too many problems unless they plan on adding more salary via trade.