ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues have signed free agent Robby Fabbri to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced Wednesday.
Fabbri will join the team in Nashville on Thursday prior to its game against the Predators at 7 p.m. Central. The contract will pay him at an annual average value of $775,000 when he’s in the NHL and $300,000 in the AHL.
Fabbri, 29, was a first-round pick (No. 21) by the Blues in 2014. He played four seasons with the club, scoring 32 goals and 73 points in 164 games.
In November of 2019, Fabbri was traded to the Detroit Red Wings for forward Jacob de La Rose. Since then, he has played for the Red Wings and the Anaheim Ducks, where he had eight goals and 16 points in 44 games last season. In his nine-year NHL career, he has 106 goals and 216 points in 442 games.
Fabbri signed a PTO with the Pittsburgh Penguins in September but was released before the regular season began.
On Dec. 1, the Charlotte Checkers, who are the AHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, signed Fabbri to a PTO.
“He’s got such an offensive punch to his game,” Charlotte coach Geordie Kinnear said after the signing. “We’re excited to have him. I know he’s excited to get back to the National Hockey League. That’s what we are trying to do for all of our guys. That’s the goal.”
Fabbri played in three games with the Checkers and had one goal and two points.
“He hasn’t played a lot of hockey, and we’re finding chemistry for him,” Kinnear said after Saturday’s game. “I played him a lot (Dec. 5) and played him a lot (Dec. 6). We just talked about having a strong work ethic to get up to speed, but you can see his composure. He wants to make plays and makes people around him better.”
The signing is due, in part, to the Blues losing five forwards to injuries, including Nick Bjugstad in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.
Jordan Kyrou has been placed on injured reserve but is still considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury.