Red Wings ink Bertuzzi

Detroit, MI (Sports Network) – The Detroit Red Wings have signed free agent forward Todd Bertuzzi to a one-year contract.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bertuzzi will join the Wings for the second time in his checkered career. He was acquired by Detroit from Florida at the trade deadline in February 2007 and played eight regular-season games for the Wings.

The 34-year-old veteran spent last season with the Calgary Flames, compiling 15 goals and 29 assists for 44 points in 66 games. He has 255 career goals and 624 points in 859 NHL games over 13 seasons with the New York Islanders, Vancouver, Florida, Detroit, Anaheim and Calgary.

However, Bertuzzi will likely be best-remembered for the incident with Colorado’s Steve Moore in March of 2004. Bertuzzi, then with the Canucks in an apparent retaliation for a hit Moore delivered against Vancouver captain Markus Naslund earlier in the season, punched Moore from behind and drove him face-first into the ice.

Moore suffered three fractured neck vertebrae, facial cuts and a severe concussion from the hit. For his actions, Bertuzzi was suspended for the final 13 games of the 2003-04 season and the playoffs.

Bertuzzi was selected with the 23rd overall pick of the 1993 draft by the Islanders, but his best years came with Vancouver. He notched 70-plus points three times with the Canucks and his best season came in 2002-03 with career highs of 46 goals and 51 assists.

In 52 career playoff games, the Ontario native has 10 goals and 15 assists.