Hurricanes sign Semin to five-year extension

The Carolina Hurricanes have signed Alexander Semin to a five-year contract extension, which the team announced is worth $7 million per season.

The 29-year-old signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Hurricanes this past summer and has lived up to the contract. He has eight goals and 22 assists in 30 games and has been a big reason for captain Eric Staal's 14-goal, 35-point season.

"We're very happy to retain Alex," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said. "Alex is an elite player and has been a major contributor to the Hurricanes having a very strong top line."

Semin spent seven seasons with the Washington Capitals before coming to Carolina. As a member of the Capitals, he scored at least 28 goals four times with a career-best 40 goals in 2009-10.

Semin, 29, is in his eighth NHL season and his first with Carolina, after signing as a free agent on July 26, 2012. The Krasnoyarsk, Russia, native leads the Hurricanes in assists (22), and ranks second in points (30) and plus/minus rating (plus-18) in 30 games this season. He is tied for 11th among all NHL skaters in assists this season, and tied for 10th in plus/minus rating. He ranks first among Hurricanes forwards in time on ice per game (20:39).

Overall, Semin has totaled 205 goals and 233 assists (438 points) in 499 career NHL games with the Capitals and the Hurricanes.

"I love this city. I love the fans. In a short time, I have grown very close with my teammates, coaches and staff in Carolina," Semin told Hurricanes television analyst Tripp Tracy.

Washington's first-round selection (No. 13) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Semin is fifth in the NHL in plus/minus over the last five seasons (plus-110), behind only Henrik Sedin, Zdeno Chara, Alexandre Burrows and Daniel Sedin.

"Any time a player comes here, he comes with a clean slate. It doesn't matter what has happened or what the player has done," Rutherford told the team's website. "When signing him, the expectations were to give Eric a real strong winger and for him to come in and put points on the board.

"We really didn't know Alex and he didn't know us. After a period of time, we saw that he was a good fit for our team, and he has clearly passed all expectations."