SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild signed forward Vinni Lettieri to a two-year, two-way contract on Saturday, bringing the grandson of hockey great Lou Nanne back to his home state.
The salary-cap-crunched Wild made only a couple of minor moves after NHL free agency opened, also signing forward Jake Lucchini to a one-year, two-way contract.
But the transaction was plenty significant for the Lettieri and Nanne families. The 28-year-old Lettieri, who will make $750,000 in the NHL and $550,000 in the AHL, spent most of last season with Boston's minor-league affiliate. He had 23 goals and 26 assists in 48 games for Providence.
The native of Excelsior, Minnesota, can play center or wing. He has 116 goals and 113 assists in 267 career AHL games and seven goals and 11 assists in 83 career NHL games. Lettieri originally signed with the New York Rangers as an undrafted free agent before latching on with Anaheim.
Lettieri played four years of college hockey at Minnesota, helping the Gophers win four consecutive Big Ten regular season championships with 37 goals and 46 assists over 149 games.
Watch more of Minnesota sports:
Watch the latest reports from the KARE 11 sports team in our YouTube playlist:
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11's newscasts. You'll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
- Add KARE 11+ on Roku here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Roku Channel Store.
- Add KARE 11+ on Fire TV here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Amazon App Store.
- Learn more about the KARE 11+ app for Apple TV in the Apple App Store.
- Learn more about KARE 11+ here.