The Blackhawks announced a trio of signings Thursday, including the final decision in the long-winded process of inking top prospect Ian Mitchell.
Mitchell will officially join the Hawks at the start of the 2020-21 season, and his three-year entry-level contract will last through the 2022-23 season.
That’s a win for Hawks general manager Stan Bowman.
The NHL made all players signed after the March 12 coronavirus-caused season stoppage ineligible to compete in the restarted playoffs this summer, but players could still sign and burn one of their three years just to practice with their new team for a few weeks. The Wild were forced to do that with their top prospect, Kirill Kaprizov, and as of Monday, Bowman and Mitchell’s agent were still negotiating on which path to take.
In the end, the Hawks will end up getting an extra year of Mitchell at a cheap $925,000 cap hit, which could be invaluable in the stagnant salary cap era.
The decision concludes — at long last — the prolonged “signing Mitchell” saga, which dated back to Mitchell rejected Bowman’s attempt last summer in order to return for his junior year at Denver University. Mitchell was unofficially signed in April, but the contract couldn’t be filed without a start date.
The 21-year-old defenseman was one of the best players in college hockey each of the last two seasons and projects as a puck-moving top-four defenseman at the NHL level, a role he could step into as soon as November.
The Hawks also signed two free agents — one another college hockey product, the other a European league import — to contracts Thursday.
For the second straight year, the Hawks landed the top scorer in Switzerland’s National League. And if Pius Suter, this year’s addition, has a debut campaign anything like predecessor Dominik Kubalik did — a season now headlined deservedly with Calder Trophy finalist recognition — he’ll be a smash hit.
Suter, 24, comes to Chicago after five consecutive years with Zurich SC. He ripped off 30 goals and 53 points in 50 games this past season, shattering his previous career high of 39 points.
He’s a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, but makes up for that in creativity.
His path in North America could vary from Kubalik on the high end to Anton Wedin (who couldn’t break out of the AHL all year and left to return to Sweden in May) on the low end, but such is the nature of all European imports.
The Hawks will surely be optimistic Suter — who reportedly had numerous NHL suitors — will trend more toward the former. His one-year contract will make him a restricted free agent next offseason.
Bowman also added University of Wisconsin product Wyatt Kalynuk, a defenseman who scored 28 points in 36 games as the Badgers’ captain this past season.
Kalynuk was a Flyers seventh-round pick in 2017, but the Flyers let his rights expire last month.
He’ll almost certainly need some time to develop in the AHL before the Hawks give him a big-league look. He’s signed to a two-year contract.
