HAWTHORN has shown faith in ruckman Jonathon Ceglar's ability to return to his best, re-signing him for two years after he spent the season recovering from a knee reconstruction.

Ceglar played 50 matches in his previous four seasons at Waverley Park, but missed out on playing in the Hawks' flag three-peat – being most unlucky in 2014, when he was dropped for Ben McEvoy.

The 26-year-old played 19 matches last year, only to rupture the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in August against West Coast.

Ceglar averaged 21.4 hit-outs and kicked 14 goals in 2016 in a ruck-forward combination with McEvoy, a partnership they may reprise next season.

Hawthorn is suddenly blessed for ruck depth. McEvoy enjoyed a career-best campaign this year, while developing big man Marc Pittonet took a step forward in the VFL.

McEvoy has also re-signed until the end of the 2019 season, and 21-year-old three-gamer Pittonet comes out of contract next year.

Hawks recruiting and list manager Graham Wright said he was pleased to secure Ceglar's services.

"It's been a tough 12 months for Jon with injury, but we are confident he can get back to his form of 2016 and be a real asset to us around the ground," Wright told the club's website.

"He's been working incredibly hard in his rehab and having him in the mix next season will add some great flexibility to our line-up.

"We're really excited by the depth of our ruck division and look forward to seeing a variety of strong partnerships form between the likes of Ceglar, McEvoy and Pittonet."

Hawthorn's elite performance manager Andrew Russell is confident Ceglar will complete most of the club's pre-season.

"Cegs was very close to getting back into the ball program, (but) we decided that it was a bit too fine a line to get him back, so we've set him for the start of pre-season (on November 20)," Russell said.

"He should be doing skills in December and then getting pretty much close to a full pre-season in preparation for next year."

Ceglar joins James Sicily, Shaun Burgoyne, McEvoy, Blake Hardwick, Tim O'Brien, Ryan Schoenmakers, Conor Glass, James Cousins and Oliver Hanrahan in re-committing to Hawthorn since August.