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March 8 (The Sports Xchange) - The Chicago Blackhawks extended the contract of forward Marcus Kruger for three years through the 2018-19 season on Tuesday. The 25-year-old Kruger had one assist in 33 games this season before going on injured reserve Dec. 28. - - The Tampa Bay Lightning recalled defenseman Luke Witkowski from the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, the team announced. Witkowski, 25, has appeared in four games with Tampa Bay this season and had four penalty minutes. He has played in 20 career NHL games without scoring a point. ... Continue to Article

March 08, 2016 7:22:pm EST

The Chicago Blackhawks have signed defensive-minded forward Marcus Kruger to a three-year contract extension. The 25-year-old Kruger was in the final season of a one-year $1.5 million contract. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger , Kruger’s new deal is worth $9.25 million. This comes out to $3.083 million per-year for Kruger. [ Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest today ] Kruger has been out since Dec. 17 this season following wrist surgery. He has one assist in 33 games played. Last season, Kruger had 17 points in 81 games played and averaged 13:05 of ice-time. His best offensive season came in 2013-14 when he had 28 points in 81 games. Last summer, Kruger waited for the Blackhawks to free up salary space before he signed their one-year offer.  Kruger had reportedly been looking for a long-term deal, but wanted to stay in Chicago and opted to wait before the team had a better handle on their salary structure.   Kruger leads all Blackhawks forwards, averaging 2:22 of ice-time on the penalty kill per-game. Last season he averaged 2:13 of PK ice-time per-game. Kruger has also won 49.7 percent of his face offs this season and last year won 53.3 percent of his draws.  Said the Chicago Sun-Times on how Kruger fits with these Blackhawks: Kruger’s contribution has never been as high-profile as those of his fellow multi-time champion teammates. But the Hawks have never taken the defensive center and penalty-killing specialist for granted. The fact that the Hawks penalty-kill — a strength for years — has fallen to the 22nd-ranked unit in the league with Kruger having missed nearly three months with a wrist injury goes to show how valuable the two-time Stanley Cup champion is. In the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs, Kruger scored the triple overtime winning goal against the Anaheim Ducks in Game 2 of the Western Conference Final. He has been an important part Chicago’s 2013 and 2015 Stanley Cup teams and played a total of 76 playoff games throughout his young career. MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY - - - - - - - Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper     Continue to Article

March 08, 2016 5:39:pm EST