Montreal Canadiens Sign Sami Niku

The Montreal Canadiens have signed defenseman Sami Niku to one-year, two-way contract. It will pay him $750,000 at the NHL level and a guaranteed $475,000 in the minors. Niku's contract was terminated by the Winnipeg Jets earlier this week.

The Canadiens have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with defenseman Sami Niku.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/RiYIiH30Bq
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 24, 2021

Niku dominated the AHL during the 2017-18 season, as he scored 16 goals and recorded 54 points in 76 games. This resulted in him winning the Eddie Shore Award as the league's top defenseman. However, even with all of his success that year, he has since only played 54 career NHL games. In them, he has two goals and 10 points.

This past season, he only appeared in six games with the Jets and was held off the scoresheet. This came after another strong, but short stint with the Manitoba Moose in 2018-19. In 18 games that year, he scored three goals and had 14 points.

Montreal's left side is pretty solid, though, as they have Joel Edmundson, Alexander Romanov and Ben Chiarot. Thus, Niku will have to work hard at camp to cement himself a spot in their top-six. If he can play the right side, he could battle it out for the final spot with Chris Wideman.

Nonetheless, this is still a good opportunity for Niku. He can finally move on from Winnipeg and try his luck elsewhere.