It was announced this morning that the Edmonton Oilers have signed Jussi Jokinen to a one-year contract worth $1.1 million.

Peter Chiarelli added a little bit of depth to the wings as he brought in 12-year veteran, Jussi Jokinen, on a low-risk, short-term deal. For one year at $1.1 million, Jokinen should provide some cheap scoring and internal competition that will push some of the younger forwards to earn their ice time. At 34-years-old, Jokinen is also on the back-nine of his NHL career and the Oilers should be getting a player that is hungry to stay in the league.

In the very least, Jokinen should be able to chip in with the same rate of secondary offence as Benoit Pouliot did for a fraction of the price and, at best, he could be another 15-20 goal man on the roster. That said, you never really know what you’re going to get from Jussi Jokinen in terms of production or health so this signing could turn out to be a massive bargain or an “at least we tried” type of deal at worst. He’s only two years removed from an 18-goal season and he should get the opportunity to play with a talented centreman regardless of which line he’s on and that could mean a bump in his numbers.

Over the last four seasons, Jokinen missed only 16 games which is basically the healthiest run he’s ever had in his NHL career. As long as he can keep himself healthy, I don’t see any downside from this pickup and the upside is obviously that he could be a great value add if he can get back into the 30-40 point range. All in all, this is a smart gamble for Chiarelli to take and one that makes the Oilers better today than they were yesterday. Besides, someone had to replace Matty Hendricks’ “paralyzer” success in the shootout.