NHL: West Dundee native Hartman agrees to deal with Minnesota Wild

West Dundee native Ryan Hartman has agreed to terms with the Minnesota Wild on a two-year, $3.8 million contract, the Wild announced Monday.

Hartman, 24, totaled 26 points in 83 games with the Nashville Predators and the Philadelphia Flyers during the 2018-19 season.

He previously played parts of four seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, who selected him 30th overall in the 2013 draft. The Blackhawks traded the hometown player to Nashville at the trade deadline in 2018. He was traded from Nashville to Philadelphia, again at the trade deadline, in February.

Hartman officially agreed to the deal with Minnesota days after returning from a fishing trip in remote northern Canada.

Hartman’s family and his agent had trouble reaching the NHL forward last week when he was traded from Philadelphia to the Dallas Stars. Dallas did not extend a qualifying offer to Hartman and he officially became a free agent Monday.

Hartman, an avid fisherman, had been without cell service at the time of the trade. His agent eventually reached Hartman via satellite phone.

“Stuff happens, and you adjust,” Hartman’s father Craig Hartman told the Northwest Herald last week. “[Ryan] rolls with the punches pretty well.”

Hartman will now join a Minnesota organization that missed the postseason for the first time in seven years.

“Ryan will bring grit and competitiveness to our lineup,” Wild general manager Paul Fenton said in a statement released by the team. “His compete level is what we are looking for from our team each and every night.”

Hartman was born in South Carolina, but his family is from the Chicago area and moved to West Dundee when he was 2. He played youth hockey with the Crystal Lake Leafs for a year before joining the Chicago Mission club team, where he played alongside two of his future Blackhawks teammates. He later played with the United States National Development Program and the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League before he was selected in the NHL draft.