Blackhawks sign Artem Anisimov to 5-year, $22.75 million deal
Just after the Chicago Blackhawks acquired him in Tuesday's blockbuster Brandon Saad trade, general manager Stan Bowman said that Artem Anisimov is a player they had been chasing after for quite a long time. Now that they have him, they are prepared to make sure they keep him.
The Blackhawks and Anisimov agreed to a new five-year contract extension on Wednesday that is reportedly worth $22.75 million. That comes out to a salary cap hit of $4.55 million per season. The contract will kick in for the 2016-17 season; Anisimov still has one year remaining on his current contract that carries a salary cap hit of $3.2 million.
Anisimov spent the past three seasons playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets after he was acquired by the team in the Rick Nash trade. He is a solid two-way center that is usually good for 15-20 goals and 35-40 points over 82 games and should slide nicely into a second-line center role for the Blackhawks, replacing what they're losing in Brad Richards.
