 | Veteran forward Brenden Morrow signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team announced Friday. Financial terms were not released, but Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com reported the value at $1.55 million. | | Tampa Bay - July 13, 2014 - Veteran forward Brenden Morrow signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team announced Friday. Financial terms were not released, but Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com reported the value at $1.55 million.
"I think it's a young team that is coming into their own in the next couple of years, so their window of where they are going to be expected to have a championship season,'' Morrow told The Tampa Tribune.
"And they have great leadership and a coach (Jon Cooper) that has won at every level. They are an exciting team. They are a hungry team, and I'm excited about the opportunity to play with this group."
Morrow, 33, had 13 goals and 25 points in 71 regular-season games with the St. Louis Blues last season; he was without a point in two Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Selected by the Dallas Stars with the 25th pick of the 1997 NHL Draft, Morrow has 262 goals and 507 points in 921 games in 14 seasons with the Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins and Blues. He has 19 goals and 46 points in 94 playoff games.
Morrow won a gold medal with Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics; Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman was the executive director of that team.
"He plays the game hard and he'll be a real nice complement to the young group of players, him and Ryan Callahan,'' Yzerman told The Tampa Tribune. "We are looking to change our team a little bit, so I think he provides that with some more grit and hard-nosed play, as well as a ton of experience."
The Lightning also re-signed restricted free agent forward Richard Panik to a one-year, two-way contract, and signed forward Philippe Paradis to a one-year, two-way contract. Financial terms were not released.
Panik had three goals and 10 assists in 50 regular-season games with the Lightning last season, and played in two Stanley Cup Playoff games. Panik also played for Slovakia at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
He had three goals and 11 points in 13 games with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League.
A native of Martin, Slovakia, Panik has eight goals and 22 points in 75 NHL games, all with the Lightning. Panik was Tampa Bay's second-round pick (No. 52) at the 2009 NHL Draft.
Paradis, a 23-year-old center, had six goals and 15 points in 56 games with Syracuse last season. Selected by the Carolina Hurricanes with the 27th pick of the 2009 draft, he spent the past four seasons playing in the AHL and ECHL.
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