The Red Wings’ player loss to the Seattle Kraken, one Dennis Cholowski, has signed with the team on a two-way contract, per SeattleKraken.com’s Bill Condor:
As a first-ever Kraken training camp beckons, the team signed defenseman and restricted free agent Dennis Cholowski to a one-year, two-way contract with a $900,000 average annual value at the NHL level.
Cholowski, Seattle’s expansion draft choice from Detroit, appeared in 104 games for the Red Wings since being drafted 20th overall during the first round of the 2016 NHL Draft. He has scored 10 goals and added 17 assists.
“Dennis is a young defenseman with offensive upside that we were excited to add to our group,” said Ron Francis, Kraken GM. “We like his strong skating and puck moving ability and are looking forward to working with him.”
Cholowski split time between AHL Grand Rapids and Detroit last season, starring as the powerplay “quarterback” for the American Hockey League affiliate then getting called up to the NHL team after the trade deadline.
I was a little disappointed that they protected Lindstrom instead of Cholowski, because he looked like a totally different player when they called him up after the trade deadline last season. Whether he’s finally putting it all together or it was just a flash in the pan remains to be seen.
I understand why, based in his entire body of work, they would choose not to protect him, but I still hated to see him go. Best of luck, Cholo.