BOSTON — After the Boston Bruins failed to get Jarome Iginla at the trade deadline, they grabbed him in free agency.
The longtime Calgary Flames forward, who was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in March, signed a one-year deal with the Bruins on Friday. The right wing will have a base salary of $1.8 million along with $4.2 million in available incentives, which gives him a $6 million salary cap charge.
The 36-year-old Iginla entered this past season having scored at least 30 goals 11 straight times. He registered 14 goals and 33 points in 44 games between Calgary and Pittsburgh, and then had four goals and eight assists in 15 postseason games with the Penguins.
In 1,232 NHL regular-season games, Iginla had 530 goals and 576 assists. He is 32nd on the NHL’s career goal list and 57th with 1,106 points.
Iginla has added 32 goals and 29 assists in 69 career playoff games.
In other moves Friday, the Bruins signed goalie Chad Johnson to a one-year, $600,000 deal. Boston gave forward Bobby Robins a two-year, two-way contract; forward Nick Johnson a one-year, two-way deal; and defenseman Mike Moore a two-way, one-year contract.
Iginla spurned the Bruins’ advances at the trade deadline in March and chose to go to Pittsburgh. He had a no-trade clause in the final year of his contract with Calgary and narrowed his list of teams he would accept a trade to when it was clear the Flames wanted to move him.
The Flames and Bruins agreed to a trade, but Iginla nixed it when he decided he wanted to play with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins instead.
Boston swept the Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals, but the Bruins will have a much different look next season than they did last month when they lost to Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals.
Nathan Horton signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, and Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley were traded to the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
Knowing he was losing Horton and not expecting Jaromir Jagr to return to Boston, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said it was his goal to “reconstruct” the right side of his forward lines. Loui Eriksson was acquired in the deal with the Stars, and adding Iginla was the next step.
Iginla’s contract is cap-friendly, counting just $1.8 million next season. If he achieves any or all of the performance bonuses, that will count against the 2014-15 cap.
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