The Utah Hockey Club added depth and size to their blueline over the Labor Day holiday weekend, inking 2019 St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup Champion defenseman to a league minimum contract.
Utah announced on Aug. 31 that they had signed Robert Bortuzzo to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000.
Bortuzzo, 35, has played 13 seasons in the league, totaling 620 career games (including playoffs). He began his career with a six-game stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011-12.
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The St. Louis Blues acquired the Thunder Bay, Ontario native during the 2014-15 season in exchange for Ian Cole.
Over his time with the team, Bortuzzo showcased his physicality and defensive acumen in 424 regular season games and 47 playoff games, with 17 of those games being part of the Blues’ thrilling 2019 Stanley Cup journey.
During his tenure in St. Louis, Robert was nothing more than a third-pairing defenseman, but he performed his role extremely well and was a fierce competitor that Blues fans loved to watch.
No Blues player recorded more penalty minutes than him (320) over his 10 years with the team. Additionally, during that same time frame, he ranked third in hits (782), and fourth in blocked shots (531).
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Bortuzzo was a stable on the team’s penalty kill, averaging nearly two minutes of shorthanded ice time per game. He was a plus-46 while a member of the Blues, the third-best plus/minus rating from 2015 to 2023.
Now, while his play on the ice was quietly effective, most St. Louis fans remember him from when he got into a fight with former Blues forward Zach Sanford at practice.
St. Louis was at the bottom of the NHL standings and the entire team was frustrated with how poorly they had been playing. Emotions ran high on Dec. 10, 2018, at practice and Bortuzzo started throwing some hefty right hooks at Sanford.
Well, we all know what happened later on that season. Was Bortuzzo’s fight against Sanford the spark the team needed to wake up and go on that Stanley Cup run? I mean, the emergence of Jordan Binnington obviously was a huge factor, but the physical 6-foot-4 defenseman also deserves recognition for igniting his team’s passion with his scrap.
Bortuzzo fell down St. Louis’ depth chart last season and the team traded him to the New York Islanders on Dec. 8, 2023, in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick.
A two-way contract with Utah provides Robert and the…