St. Louis Blues centre Kyle Brodziak, left, shoots against Chicago Blackhawks goalie J-F Berube during a game on April 6, 2018.Nam Y. Huh/The Associated Press
The Edmonton Oilers brought forward Kyle Brodziak back to Alberta on the opening day of unrestricted free agency Sunday.
The 34-year-old centre from St. Paul, Alta., signed a two-year contract with the Oilers, who drafted him in the seventh round in 2003.
Brodziak played 175 games for the Oilers before he was traded to Minnesota in 2009. He scored 26 goals and had 33 assists for Edmonton.
The six-foot-two, 209-pound right-handed shot played the last three seasons for the St. Louis Blues. Brodziak has a career 123 goals and 164 assists in 287 NHL games.
Edmonton also signed defenceman Kevin Gravel and forward Tobias Rieder to one-year contracts.
Rieder was a fourth-round pick of the Oilers in 2011, but his rights were dealt two year later to the Arizona Coyotes.
The German had 51 goals and 60 assists in 111 games for the Coyotes, who dealt him at this year’s trade deadline to the Los Angeles Kings.
The five-foot-11, 188-pound Rieder had four goals and two assists in 20 games for the Kings. He and Oilers centreman Leon Draisaitl were world championship teammates in 2017, representing Germany.
Gravel, six foot four and 212 pounds, had a goal and nine assists in 70 career games for the Kings. The 26-year-old American was drafted in the fifth round by Los Angeles in 2010.
Edmonton didn’t have much cap space – about $10 million – heading into Sunday, according to CapFriendly.com, and must address restricted free agents Darnell Nurse and Ryan Strome this summer.
Forward Anton Slepyhshev also is an RFA, but there have been reports he will play in the Russia in the KHL next season.
Goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who spent the last five years in the Oilers organization, signed a one-year contract worth $600,000 with the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.