On Sunday morning the Calgary Flames told people  – out loud – that they have signed 29-year-old forward Zac Rinaldo to a one-year, two-way contract.

With 13 points and 147 penalty minutes in his last 128 games, Rinaldo is a less a hockey player so much as a scientific experiment into the far reaches of the absolute minimum a person can do to win a hockey game while still getting paid to do so.

The Flames announced  — in public — that the deal is worth $700,000, which if you think about it for a long time will make you very sad.

Yesterday, the Flames released human legend Devante Smith-Pelly from a professional tryout agreement. So at some point someone in that organization had photos of Rinaldo and DSP next to each other and then, probably deliberately, had the thought that they prefer Rinaldo. Which is wild.

Rinaldo is best known to Caps fans as a long-time pest for the Philadelphia Flyers, but he has recently suited up for the Bruins, Coyotes, and Predators. In 2017, he was suspended six games for sucker-punching Colorado’s Samuel Girard. In 2013, Rinaldo injured Mikhail Grabovski with a high elbow.

So anyway here’s Jason Chimera in 2015 pummeling Rinaldo.

Have a nice Sunday.

Headline photo: Calgary Flames