Matt Hunwick knows this year didn’t necessarily go as he, or the Penguins, planned when they signed him this offseason.
When he agreed to a three-year deal worth $2.25 million per season on July 1, Hunwick was supposed to come in as a reliable option on the Penguins’ blue line, effectively a replacement for Trevor Daley.
Instead, Hunwick never really meshed in the Penguins lineup, with a combination of injuries and ineffectiveness limiting him to 42 games. When the playoffs came around, he was the odd man out. The Penguins went with Chad Ruhwedel as their sixth defenseman, and Hunwick watched all 12 postseason games from the press box.