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Islanders Sign Free Agent Peter Regin, Danish Reclamation

After a promising start to his career, Regin was bumped from the Sens by injuries and better prospects.

Here come the Danes...
Here come the Danes...
Jim McIsaac

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.