Lawson Crouse signed a five-year contract with the Arizona Coyotes on Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The 25-year-old forward was a restricted free agent and avoided a salary arbitration hearing scheduled for Monday.
“It’s a great feeling, the feeling of being wanted somewhere for that amount of time is huge,” Crouse said. “They’re putting a lot of faith in me, so I’m going to do everything that I can do and make this team a better team and come out on top.”
Crouse set NHL career highs with 20 goals and 34 points in 65 games for the Coyotes last season.
“I think it showed what I’m capable of doing,” Crouse said. “As a player, I believe in myself. I feel that I can continue to grow on what I did last year, so it’s exciting. It’s good times for myself and the Coyotes going forward and looking forward to everything that’s in store.”
Selected by the Florida Panthers in the first round (No. 11) of the 2015 NHL Draft, Crouse has 110 points (56 goals, 54 assists) in 346 regular-season games and two goals in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games. He was traded with forward Dave Bolland to the Coyotes for two draft picks Aug. 25, 2016.
“We are very pleased to sign Lawson to a long-term contract,” Arizona general manager Bill Armstrong said. “He is a big, strong, skilled power forward and we look forward to him being a big part of our future.”
The Coyotes (25-50-7) finished eighth in the Central Division last season. This offseason they signed forward Nick Bjugstad and defensemen Troy Stecher and Josh Brownand acquired forward Zack Kassian and defenseman Patrik Nemeth in trades with the Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers, respectively.
“A lot of eagerness, I think that’s probably the right word,” Crouse said about going into this season. “You hear all these talks off the ice, but at the end of the day our job is to go out there and play hockey and hockey players are competitive people by nature, so we’re going to put our best foot forward each and every night. I think we’ll probably just try and do our best to block our minds and our ears out from the outside noise and just go out there and try and win hockey games. That’s really all we can control. We can’t control what’s being said about us in the outside world. It’s just about focusing on hockey, our group trying to become better. That’s really all we can do.
“I believe in the core of our team and I want to come out of this rebuild on top. We want to be a Stanley Cup team and I believe we can. We just got to work through it and it’s not always going to be easy. , but nothing good in life does come easy. So in the end it all be worth it.”
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