Blackhawks begin free agency by signing depth center Ryan Carpenter

The Blackhawks took just half an hour to make a move in the NHL’s free agency madness Monday, signing former Sharks and Golden Knights forward Ryan Carpenter to a three-year contract.

The contract will carry a cap hit of just $1 million — a sharp contrast to some of the excessive deals thrown around elsewhere.

Carpenter is a 28-year-old center entering his third full NHL season, emerging as an undrafted free agent in San Jose’s system before really breaking through in the past two years in Vegas.

“It’s my first time going through free agency besides being a college free agent,” he said via conference call Monday. “It just seems to all happen so quick. I talked to Chicago on the first day and was super excited and super impressed.”

The Florida native appeared in 68 games last season, more than doubling his previous career high, and scored 18 points — five goals, 13 assists — to go along with impressive analytics and a solid 52.6 faceoff winning percentage.

Just how impressive were those analytics? Among all NHL players with at least 500 minutes played, Carpenter ranked seventh in the league with a 57.9 Corsi (shot attempts for) percentage. He graded especially well in several defensive aspects, such as limiting shot attempts in the low slot and exiting the defensive zone with possession.

In Chicago, Carpenter will compete for the fourth-line center role and add versatile depth to the bottom six, which was considered the Hawks’ biggest area of need entering July.

“I just wanted to have a chance to play a role,” he said. “[I’m] a bottom-six forward, a good PK-er, a right-handed faceoff centerman and a guy that does the little things right. Teams that win and make the playoffs and go on long runs, I feel like they need those kind of players to be successful.”

Carpenter’s aforementioned faceoff skills and decent penalty-killing experience are exactly what GM Stan Bowman was looking for.

He was justified to note his handedness as an important attribute, too — the Hawks’ four other natural centers are all left-handed. For faceoffs at the right dot, Carpenter will be especially helpful to have.

“You’d think faceoffs would be easy, but it’s just important sometimes to have guys on their strong side,” he said. “It’s something you work on and practice, and you never stop working on it.”