Former Penguins defenseman Kevin Czuczman has joined the Minnesota Wild, signing a one-year, two-way contract worth a league-minimum $750,000.
Czuczman, 30, had been a member of the Penguins for the past four seasons. During the 2020-21 campaign, he played his first NHL games in approximately seven years. In two NHL games with the Penguins, he did not record a point.
An alternate captain with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the right-handed Czuczman (6-foot-3, 210 pounds), played in 28 American Hockey League (AHL) games last season and recorded four points.
Czuczman previously played for Wild general manager Bill Guerin during Guerin’s tenure as assistant general manager of the Penguins.
Note: The Ottawa Senators signed forward Pontus Aberg to a one-year, two-way contract for $750,000. Aberg, 24, was a restricted free agent whose NHL rights were controlled by the Penguins last season. Acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs in August of 2020, Aberg spent all of the 2020-21 season with Traktor Chelyabinsk of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and never played with the Penguins. His signing rights were relinquished earlier this week when the Penguins did not tender him a qualifying offer.
