Keith Yandle #3 of the Phoenix Coyotes tries to keep the puck away from Jakub Voracek #93 of the Columbus Blue Jackets on January 11, 2011 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Three defencemen signed NHL contracts Tuesday but only Keith Yandle was able to score a big raise.
Thanks to his 59 points in 82 games last season with the Phoenix Coyotes, which was third among the league's defencemen, Yandle received a five-year contract extension from the Coyotes for a total of $26.5-million.
The $5.3-million per year represents a handsome raise on the $1.3-million Yandle, 24, earned last season but it is a reasonable salary for the Coyotes considering some of the contracts handed out on the weekend when the free-agent season started. It also locks up one of the best young defencemen in the NHL for the next five years.
Things are not going so well in Los Angeles where one of the other top young defencemen is concerned. Kings general manager Dean Lombardi told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that signing Drew Doughty is going to be difficult.
"I am getting the feeling on Drew that unfortunately this could take a while," Lombardi said.
Doughty, 21, is a restricted free agent who had 40 points last season and broke into prominence as a budding superstar.
Tomas Kaberle was not as fortunate as Yandle as he finally found an employer but failed to get a pay raise in signing with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The former Leaf agreed to a three-year, $12.75-million contract on Tuesday with Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford. That works out to $4.25-million per year, which is the same salary he earned on his old five-year contract which he signed with the Leafs.
Kaberle was traded to the Boston Bruins by the Leafs, where he won a Stanley Cup. However, his ice time diminished as the playoffs progressed because Bruins head coach Claude Julien was not happy with his work in his own end.
He had 47 points in 82 games split between the Leafs and Bruins last season. Kaberle can be an asset on the power play, which is one reason Rutherford signed him.
The addition of Kaberle, 33, gave the Hurricanes three offensive-minded defencemen who are not known for playing well in their own end: Kaberle, Joni Pitkanen and Joe Corvo. But Rutherford reduced it to two when he traded Corvo to the Bruins for a fourth-round pick in the 2012 NHL entry draft.
Kaberle will be rejoining head coach Paul Maurice, who coached him for two years with the Leafs and had a good relationship with him. Rutherford thinks the right defence partner will pay dividends for Kaberle, whose older brother Frantisek once played for the Hurricanes.
"[He is a]great puck mover and power-play guy," Rutherford said in an e-mail message. "Match him with the right partner and we will have a good all-around player."
Another defenceman who agreed to a contract Tuesday was Marc Methot, 26, who signed a four-year deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Ottawa Senators signed centre Zenon Konopka to a one-year deal for $700,000.