RALEIGH, NC – Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with center Manny Malhotra (mal-HOH-truh) on a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay Malhotra $600,000 at the NHL level, or $125,000 at the American Hockey League (AHL) level, with a guarantee of $250,000.

“Manny brings a level of veteran leadership to the Hurricanes organization and gives the team depth at the center position,” said Rutherford. “He has demonstrated in his career that he can be an extremely good defensive player and faceoff man.”

Malhotra, 33, signed a professional tryout contract with Carolina’s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, on Oct. 3. The Mississauga, Ont., native has played in eight games with Charlotte this season. He played in nine games with the Vancouver Canucks in 2012-13, sitting out most of the season with a recurring eye injury originally suffered in Vancouver’s game against Colorado on March 16, 2011.

Since making his NHL debut as an 18-year-old with the New York Rangers on Oct. 10, 1998, Malhotra (6’2”, 220 lbs.) has scored 108 goals, earned 170 assists (278 points) and totaled 421 penalty minutes in 864 regular-season games with the Rangers, Dallas, Columbus, San Jose and Vancouver. He has led his teams in faceoff-win percentage in each of his last eight full seasons, and finished in the top six among NHL faceoff leaders five times since 2005-06, including ranking second in the league in 2007-08 and 2010-11. The Rangers drafted Malhotra in the first round, seventh overall, in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft.