Shattenkirk agrees to three-year contract with Ducks

Kevin Shattenkirk agreed to a three-year contract with the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"As I kind of had known from previous experiences, free agency is always a crazy day," the 31-year-old defenseman said Saturday. "A lot of stuff gets thrown at you kind of all at once once 12 o'clock hits. I think for me talking to (Ducks general manager) Bob Murray yesterday had a big impact on it.

"Just hearing his passion for bringing that back to Anaheim and knowing what he's built here over the last few years with some of the great young talent they have and kind of seeing where I fit in on the team, especially on the back end with some great players I'd be paired up with was something that I couldn't really pass up."

Shattenkirk scored 34 points (eight goals, 26 assists) in 70 regular-season games with the Tampa Bay Lightning last season and 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 25 postseason games to help them win the Stanley Cup.

"It was fairly quick," Murray said Friday of reaching an agreement with Shattenkirk. "He had multiple suitors. I think it was more the pressing thought we had was if it got to where -- like [Torey] Krug just went (to the St. Louis Blues) now -- if [Tyson] Barrie had [signed], guys, we felt them all out. We felt if it got to where they were all gone, the lineup might be longer. It's a guy we had targeted. We had a game plan going into today. We pretty successfully played to our game plan."

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Selected by the Colorado Avalanche in the first round (No. 14) of the 2007 NHL Draft, Shattenkirk has 383 points (83 goals, 300 assists) in 679 regular-season games with the Avalanche, St. Louis Blues, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers and Lightning, and 47 points (eight goals, 39 assists) in 85 postseason games.

Murray said Anaheim expressed interest in Shattenkirk last offseason when he had the final two seasons of his four-year contract bought out by the Rangers. Shattenkirk instead signed a one-year, $1.75 million contract with Tampa Bay on Aug. 5, 2019.

"Well obviously he knew we liked him and I liked him, and he had a great chat a year ago with myself and with (coach) Dallas [Eakins]," Murray said. "He liked Dallas a year ago. Hey, Kevin made the right decision, as much as I didn't like it last year. He made the right decision and I told him so. But that's to our benefit now. Because now he's won, now he knows how to win. That's only good for us and our younger players."

Shattenkirk said, "Last summer, when everything happened with New York, I really narrowed it down to Anaheim and Tampa Bay. At the time, Tampa was the right choice for me, but I had the opportunity to talk to Dallas Eakins and talk to Cam Fowler and be able to get a feel for what they were doing there. This time around, talking to Bob and really getting a sense of the direction that he is moving with the team, I kind of realized after all my years and some of the struggles we had in New York, how important winning is."

Also Friday, the Ducks signed forward Derek Grant to a three-year contract. Financial terms were not disclosed. The 30-year-old scored 20 points (14 goals, six assists) in 49 games for Anaheim last season before being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 24.

Grant, who was an unrestricted free agent, scored five points (one goal, four assists) in seven regular-season games for the Flyers and had two assists in 15 postseason games.

NHL.com staff writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report