Zach Aston-Reese signs one-year contract with Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings have signed forward Zach Aston-Reese to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000. He’ll be placed on waivers Sunday afternoon, and could still be claimed elsewhere.

The move comes two days after the Carolina Hurricanes released Aston-Reese from a tryout contract.

The depth forward is coming off of one of his best seasons to date, scoring 10 goals and 14 points in 77 games. The 29-year-old has six NHL seasons to his credit, scoring 42 goals and 80 points over six years. He had a career-best 17 points in 43 games in 2018-19 while with Pittsburgh, his second year in the NHL.

Aston-Reese was undrafted at the NHL level, but signed his first NHL deal after a four-year run with Northeastern University. There, he had an incredible 31 goals and 63 points in 2016-17 before going on a scoring run with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to finish off the AHL season. With some good offensive totals early in his career, it looked like ZAR was building himself up to be a reliable NHL contributor. Instead, he has settled in more as a penalty-killing specalist, bouncing around between Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Toronto.

According to CapFriendly, the Red Wings have just over $5 million in projected cap space. CapFriendly currently has the Red Wings sitting at 14 forwards, with only Lucas Raymond and Jonatan Berggren being waiver-exempt – but neither are going down.