Kasperi Kapanen and the Penguins won't be heading to salary arbitration after all.
Kapanen and the Penguins agreed to a two-year contract that carries a cap hit of $3.2 million on Thursday, nine days before his arbitration hearing was set to begin. The contract brings neither a raise nor a reduction in salary from his previous contract, which also carried a $3.2 million average annual value.
Kapanen will be 27 when the deal expires after the 2023-24 season, and will thus be an unrestricted free agent at that time.
The signing puts the Penguins over the salary cap by $480,175 based off of the 23-man projected roster on CapFriendly, a figure that will obviously change if any more moves are made, and as the picture becomes more clear when it comes to which depth players make the final roster.