from Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times,

The Blackhawks have signed veteran defenseman Cody Franson to a professional tryout contract, a source confirmed, which could give them a much-needed boost on the back end of their back end....

The Hawks are desperate for help on the blue line after trading Niklas Hjalmarsson to Arizona and losing Brian Campbell to retirement and Johnny Oduya to free agency. Franson will compete for a spot on the right side of the third-pairing with Czech import Jan Rutta and minor-leaguers Ville Pokka and Erik Gustafsson. While Franson had three productive seasons in Toronto, including 33- and 32-point campaigns, the 6-5 234-pounder is a slower, lumbering skater.

But if he pans out — and there’s no guarantee he will, as previous veterans on PTOs such as Daniel Paille, Jan Hejda and Lubomir Visnovsky haven’t stuck in the past — he’d still be a probable upgrade over any of the other options. Veteran Michal Rozsival, if healthy, is likely to be the seventh defenseman.

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