On Tuesday afternoon the Blackhawks announced the team has re-signed defenseman Jarred Tinordi. The deal has a $1.25 million cap hit.
Tinordi, 31, has appeared in 44 games for the Blackhawks this year during an injury plagued season that has still been a pleasant surprise. Claimed off waivers from the Rangers in early October, Tinordi came in and became a physical presence on the blue line for Chicago that wasn’t there before.
Head coach Luke Richardson has talked about Tinordi’s compete, his battle, and his willingness to do anything for the team a lot this season. Tinordi has dealt with a skate cut to the face, a broken jaw, a hip issue and a couple other injuries this season but is always the first guy willing hit someone to change the momentum of a game or drop the gloves to make a statement.
Because of his latest ailment — a hip issue that might require a summer “clean-up” — we might not see Tinordi in either of the remaining two regular season games.
I love the Blackhawks bringing Tinordi back. They took a low risk shot on him and he’s been more than they probably hoped he would be. With young defenseman like Alex Vlasic, Isaak Phillips, Filip Roos and maybe a couple others making the move up to the NHL last year, a player like Tinordi — even as a sixth or seventh defenseman — is a great character play by the front office. I said as much a couple weeks back when I looked ahead at what the Blackhawks’ defensive group might look like next year.