"I'm really excited to be here another three years," Beauchemin said. "We have a great group of guys and good young players. We're going to have a good team for awhile. It's just a matter of us keeping playing the way we've been playing lately.

"People don't know this, but it is a lot of stress on the players and their families to not know what's going to happen in the future. When you get those extensions, it just feels great. Everyone is a lot more relaxed at home and we can move on and think about the future."

The 31-year-old Beauchemin is Beauchemin has six goals (including two Wednesday night) and is tied with Cam Fowler for the team lead in defenseman scoring with 18 points. He's also playing a team-high 25:44 a game. 

"He’s playing great," Boudreau said today. "From the first day I got here. He’s a great character guy, can log a lot of minutes, can play different roles for you at any time, big heart. What team can’t use a player like that? To lock him in for the time that Bob [Murray] did, I thought he did a great job. It’s good for Beauch as well."

Said Murray to the OC Register, "“He’s never going to cheat you. He’s an honest, hard hockey player who shows up to play for you every night. He’s not just going to show up. He’s going to compete. And as with all players, as I well know, some nights you don’t have your ‘A’ game. You have your ‘B’ game. You know Beauch is always going to bring it.”