Meet the new Blackhawks: Hmm, I wonder what Nick Foligno was brought in to do?
He's no longer a top line power forward, but no one is expecting him to be.
From the glorious, glorious second the lottery results were revealed and it became apparent that the Blackhawks would be lucky enough to draft Connor Bedard, the refrain started: "They need to bring in someone to protect him."
There were many options mentioned initially, with some truly terrifying names – like Ryan Reaves and Milan Lucic – being tossed around (Lucic even went on record saying the Blackhawks had reached out to him). But ultimately Kyle Davidson may have addressed that "need" in the best way possible by acquiring Nick Foligno's rights from the Bruins, the smaller part of the Tayor Hall deal, then inking the veteran forward to a one-year, $4 million dollar contract.
For anyone who isn't familiar with Foligno's professional resume, here's the rundown straight from Dave's post on the signing:
Foligno is a veteran of 1,081 regular-season games across 16 NHL seasons with four teams, topping out at 599 with the Columbus Blue Jackets. That's where Foligno enjoyed the most productive seasons of his career, including a 73-point season (31 G, 42 A) in 79 games for the 2014-15 Blue Jackets. His numbers have steadily trended down from there, clocking in at 26 points (10 G, 16 A) in 60 games with Boston last season.