Fernando Pisani Signs With the Hawks. Wait, What?

Today the Blackhawks surprised all of us with the signing of Fernando Pisani, formerly of the Edmonton Oilers.  The signing was broke by Ryan Rishaug of TSN on twitter.  It is a one-way deal (meaning Pisani must go through waivers to be sent to the AHL and still receive his NHL salary) for one year for $500,000.

But What Does It All Mean, Basil?

Nothing really.  Pisani had an absolute bombshell 2006 playoffs (14 goals, including a Finals game-winner in overtime while shorthanded, first time that ever happened), almost singlehandedly willing the Oilers into the Stanley Cup finals, but has mostly disappeared since then being regressed to third and fourth line duties with the Oilers.

Since that season, he hasn't surpassed 56 games played in a season due to a litany of injuries, most famously the ulcerative colitis he did a commercial for.

What it seems to me Stan Bowman is doing is getting as many players for as cheap as possible to have as many options as possible for the season.  Pisani does a decent job of killing penalties and should see some minutes there.

Beyond that, there isn't too much else to say about it.  This is a depth signing, and will push the AHL'ers trying to make the big club to work that much harder.  *COUGH*JACKSKILLE*COUGH*

To you, my dear readers, what do you think?  Good signing?  Shitty signing? (Thanks to @AndrewCieslak for that one)  Sound off in the comments.