Former Gatineau Olympique will earn $775,000 in each of the next three seasons.

The Ottawa Senators have announced the signing of 26-year-old forward Zack MacEwen to a three-year contract worth $2.3 million. If UFA Austin Watson isn't returning this fall, MacEwen represents a player who can do a pretty decent Watson impression for roughly half the money Watson made last season.

MacEwen split the 2022-23 campaign between the Flyers and the LA Kings, putting up four goals and 10 points in 56 games. The 6-foot-2 205 pounder can best be described as not much fun to play against. MacEwen forechecks hard, rarely passes up a chance to finish a check and got into eight fights last season, which accounted for most of his 68 penalty minutes. He missed 12 games with a broken jaw, suffered in a fight with Marcus Foligno.

MacEwen was a fine junior scorer with the Gatineau Olympiques, riding shotgun with former Senators farmhand Vitaly Abramov in 2016-17. MacEwen scored 31 goals and 74 points that year, but like many good junior scorers before him, the undrafted winger had to remodel his game to carve out a niche as a bottom-six guy in the NHL.

MacEwen played with Claude Giroux in Philly two years ago and was acquired by LA at this year's trade deadline. He appeared in one playoff game for the Kings, recording two penalty minutes. 

"Zack is a player with strong character who adds increased physicality to our lineup," GM Pierre Dorion said in a club statement. "He's a hard-nosed, competitive player who's a tenacious forechecker and demonstrates a routine willingness to go to the hard areas."

MacEwen has appeared in 186 career NHL games including seven playoff games.

Back home in Stratford PEI, McEwen and his family started the My Biggest Fan Foundation, a non-profit organization that honours the legacy of Zack's late father, Craig, who died of a stroke three years ago.

The foundation offers support for hockey players and their families, in the form of:

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Sounds like another high character guy to add to an Ottawa room that's already full of them.