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The Chicago Blackhawks and restricted free agent forward Marcus Kruger are continuing to negotiate a new contract, a source said on Saturday. “Things are progressing OK,” the source said. “Nothing really to report, but nothing to worry about either.” Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman described negotiations with Kruger and his agent as going “very well” on Tuesday and thought they were getting closer to a deal. Kruger, 25, led the Blackhawks’ forwards in penalty-kill ice time and had seven goals and 10 assists in 81 regular-season games last season. He has played 287 career NHL games over the past five seasons. He was drafted by the Blackhawks in the fifth round in 2009 and signed a two-year contract extension prior to the 2013-14 season. The Blackhawks re-signed forward Andrew Desjardins to a two-year contract on Friday. Desjardins played alongside Kruger on the fourth line throughout the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup run last season. Bowman's other offseason moves were acquiring forwards Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano, Jeremy Morin, Corey Tropp and a 2016 fourth-round draft pick from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Brandon Saad, Mike Paliotta and Alex Broadhurst and signing Anisimov to a five-year contract extension, defenseman Cameron Schilling to a two-year contract and forward Viktor Tikhonov and defenseman Michael Liambas to one-year contracts.
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