Report: Penguins sign Trevor van Riemdsyk

The NHL free agent frenzy is officially underway, and just after players became eligible to sign at 12:00 PM Eastern, news broke of the Pittsburgh Penguins adding their first new player of the day.

According to a report from Chris Johnston of The Athletic, the Penguins are signing veteran right-handed defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk to a contract.

For van Riemsdyk, the new deal keeps him in the Metropolitan Division, where he has spent each of the past nine seasons after a three-year tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes and a six-year run with the Washington Capitals.

The 34-year-old native of Middletown, New Jersey brings valuable stability to the right side of the blue line for any team he plays for. van Riemsdyk has played at least 68 games in each of the past five regular seasons.

He is coming off a campaign in which he put up 14 points on 3 goals and 11 assists in 68 appearances while skating to a plus-6 rating on an average of 16:14 of time on ice per game.

The most productive season of his career from an offensive standpoint came in Washington in 2022-23, when he racked up 23 points in 75 games.

van Riemsdyk began his career with the Chicago Blackhawks, where he appeared in four games during the team’s 2015 Stanley Cup Playoff run that culminated with a championship.

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While van Riemsdyk was the first free agent signing that Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas made on Wednesday, he wasn’t the first player Pittsburgh acquired on the day.

Just an hour before free agency opened, the Penguins landed winger Nick Robertson in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dubas is also working on re-shaping the team’s defense, too. In addition to the addition of van Riemsdyk, the Penguins acquired Kaeden Korczak from the Vegas Golden Knights for Parker Wotherspoon on Tuesday.