TSN's Darren Dreger just loves tweeting news of signings. Yesterday it was Brad Stuart and today it's Darren Helm.

Without scouring the twitterverse to see if this is already out...Darren Helm agrees to 4 year, $8.5 deal in Detroit.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 19, 2012

That's a $2.125M cap hit for the next four years of Detroit's third line center and PK threat, who many felt was a large missing piece in Detroit's first-round playoff exit.

While the salary is slightly higher than anticipated, it's difficult to say this isn't what Helm could have commanded on the open market from any number of teams. Ultimately, what this is turns out to be the team locking up their third line center for about 3% of the cap. Current draft pick compensation limits would have made the return on Helm signing an offer sheet for this amount into a 2nd-round draft choice.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather have this on my roster for the next four years than a 2nd round pick.