The Detroit Purple Wings have signed centerman Joe Veleno to a two-year contract, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter hyperlink). The deal will carry an annual common worth of $2.275M and settles negotiations with a multi-year deal earlier than Veleno was set for wage arbitration.
Veleno earns a hefty increase after vindicating the one-year, $825K contract he signed final summer time. He posted 12 targets, 16 assists and 28 factors this yr — career-highs in all three classes — whereas wanting rather more the a part of a sturdy third-line middle. It was a powerful step ahead after Veleno’s stout 2022-23 marketing campaign, the place the previous first-round decide planted his toes in Detroit’s lineup, posting 20 factors in 81 video games. It was a powerful step ahead from a solidifying 2022-23 marketing campaign, which noticed Veleno put up 20 factors in 81 video games in his first true probability to carve out a job within the lineup.
Veleno is lastly settling right into a hardy NHL function after a number of years of up-and-down play to start out his profession. He’s needed to develop out of the high-energy scoring function he carried by way of 4 years within the QMJHL, studying to lean extra into the bodily benefit of his 6-foot-1, 201-pound body. That’s made him rather more efficient at filling the duties of a depth centerman with Veleno rating fourth amongst Purple Wings forwards and hits (108) and third amongst centermen in faceoff proportion (49.0 %). The short-term extension will give him an opportunity to earn an excellent larger increase earlier than his prime with Veleno set to run out in his ultimate yr of RFA eligibility.
