Veteran winger to join Carolina tonight in Boston

RALEIGH, NC—Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager for the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has claimed right wing Sergei Samsonov on re-entry waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks. Samsonov is expected to join the Hurricanes in Boston for the team’s game tonight against the Bruins (7 p.m., FSN South, Hurricanes Radio Network).

“Sergei brings NHL experience to add depth to our forwards,” said Rutherford.

Samsonov, 29, earned four assists and six penalty minutes in 23 games with the Blackhawks this season before he was assigned to the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League on Jan. 2 after clearing waivers. The Moscow, Russia, native was acquired by the Blackhawks on June 16, 2007 from Montreal in exchange for Jassen Cullimore and Tony Salmelainen. Samsonov (5’8”, 188 lbs.) has scored 178 goals and earned 244 assists (422 points) in 619 NHL regular-season games with Boston, Edmonton, Montreal and Chicago. The Bruins originally drafted Samsonov in the first round, eighth overall, in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft with a pick acquired in the deal that brought defenseman Glen Wesley to the Hurricanes organization in 1994.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Hurricanes will be responsible for half of Samsonov’s $3,525,000 salary for the remainder of this, the second season of a two-year deal he signed with Montreal in 2006.