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With free agency signings underway, the New York Islanders added another typical low-radar, reclamation-style signing: a one-year deal for Peter Regin, a low-scoring Dane formerly of the Ottawa Senators. Arthur Staple of Newsday reports the deal is for a $750,000 salary.
Regin was actually a decent prospect for the Senators when he began. In his first full season he notched 20 points in 73 games playing just 12:13 per game. He followed that up with just 17 points in 55 games in 2010-11, however, and then recurring shoulder injuries made Regin an afterthought while other, higher-potential Senators prospects took over.
Said Regin upon his latest return from injury this past season:
"There's been talk about me playing a second-line role for the past two years, but I've run into some bad luck every time I've got the opportunity. And sometimes I haven't produced when I've got the chance, so it's not only the injuries. I feel like I have decent skill, to play on the second or third line, and be the second-hand scoring."
Regin, from Frans Nielsen's hometown of Herning, Denmark, has experience of a center and a wing. He's unlikely to get a second-line role with the Islanders unless he conjures some sort of Danish magic with Nielsen. But you could also see Nielsen playing his apparently preferred role as a third-line center -- which is to say more defensive assignments, though possibly second-line minutes.
In just 27 games this past lockout-shortened season, Regin played an average of 11:31 per game but with a career-high of 1:32 on the penalty kill.
With Keith Aucoin hitting free agency, Regin might take his place in the 23-man roster. If he works out, he's a reliable bottom-six guy with penalty kill duties. But the injuries and in-and-out lineup presence over the past few seasons in Ottawa essentially makes this an uncertain albeit low-cost gamble for the Isles.
Free Agency Commentariat
Discuss Regin and the Danes here, the Nabokov re-signing over there. But our main, daylong and league-wide free agency discussion thread is over here.