The Pittsburgh Penguins re-signed pending restricted free-agent forward Teddy Blueger to a two-year contract with a annual salary-cap hit of $2.2 million.

With this contract, he is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent during the 2023 offseason.

Blueger, 26, just completed a two-year contract that had a cap hit of $750,000.

Last season, Blueger appeared in 43 games and scored 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists), matching a career high.

A second-round pick (No. 52 overall) in 2012, Blueger (6-foot, 185 pounds) has emerged as one of the team’s top defensive players while primarily centering a line with wingers Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev.

Last season, Blueger led the team with 126 defensive-zone starts in even-strength situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. On the penalty kill, Blueger led the Penguins with three short-handed goals and was second among the team’s forwards with 2 minutes, 9 seconds of short-handed ice time per contest.

The signing of Blueger certainly suggests he will be one of the seven forwards the Penguins likely will protect in advance of next week’s expansion draft for the incoming Seattle Kraken franchise. Incumbent NHL teams must submit their lists of protected players by Saturday for the expansion draft July 21.

According to Cap Friendly, the Penguins have $1,006,795 of salary cap space against the NHL’s upper limit of $81.5 million heading into the 2020-21 season.

The Penguins have six players who are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents when the NHL’s free agent signing period opens July 28:

Forwards — Frederick Gaudreau, Evan Rodrigues, Colton Sceviour

Defensemen — Cody Ceci, Kevin Czuczman

Goaltenders — Maxime Lagace

They also have seven pending unsigned restricted free agents:

Forwards — Zach Aston-Reese, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Mark Jankowski, Sam Miletic, Radim Zohorna

Defensemen — Jesper Lindgren

Goaltenders — Emil Larmi

Larmi has signed with the Lahden Pelicans of Finland’s Liiga.

Note: The NHL released the order for the entry-level draft that will be staged remotely July 23 and 24. The Penguins have picks in the second (No. 58 overall), fifth (No. 154) and seventh (Nos. 94, 215 and 218) rounds.

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