His deal is for $1 million and is for one year.  Oh, and he has a cup ring.

Bogosian is a right-shooting defender, who is big and mean and plays in more of a depth role now that he’s 30. He is an interesting guy. He is one of the extremely rare defenders to jump right into the NHL after the draft — he went third overall in 2008 — but that’s at least partly because he was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers.

He actually acquitted himself pretty well there for a kid on an expansion team that never got good.  Bogosian travelled to Winnipeg when the team moved to become the Jets*, and eventually he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres where he did yeoman’s service on some of the worst teams in hockey since the Thrashers were a thing.

I have to admit, I had a smile on my face when he won the cup. He was due something good. He won that cup after a deadline trade to the Tampa Bay Lightning who were going for some big and mean guys, and he has two assists in eight regular season games, four assists in 20 playoff games and the aforementioned ring. They re-signed Luke Schenn, so we’re even.

Correction:

Listen to her not me.

I’d forgotten Bogo had essentially engineered a mid-season buyout to get the hell out of Buffalo. Considering he’s from a town just down the highway, that says a lot about Buffalo.

What’s he like as a player though? Not very good! But also, not very bad. He’s likely a replacement level depth guy now, but you don’t have to go back more than two years to find some decent defensive impacts in his results.

Is he as good as Justin Holl? No, likely not, although they play so differently, I’m not sure that’s a meaningful comparison. Let’s test him type against type...

I suddenly feel so much better.

Free Agents and Contracts