Thanksgiving Monday was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for Canucks fans. They learned in the afternoon that Tyler Toffoli had inked a pretty reasonable four-year contract with the Montreal Canadiens, then found out in the evening that Jim Benning had acquired defenseman Nate Schmidt from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a third-round draft pick in 2022.
As the defensive pickings on the free-agent front started to thin out earlier in the weekend, I wondered in the last blog if a trade might come to fruition. When Benning spoke with the media on Friday, after the Braden Holtby signing, he mentioned that conversations about trades were a main point of his attention, even after the Oliver Ekman-Larsson option with Arizona went dead.
The rumours that Alex Pietrangelo was likely to sign with Vegas seemed pretty legitimate, as was the talk that the Golden Knights had offered Marc-Andre Fleury around the league in an attempt to clear cap space, with no takers. I thought there could be a chance to potentially grab a good player from Vegas, who wouldn't be able to make Pietrangelo wait forever.
In Schmidt, the Canucks are getting a well-respected two-way defenseman who can play big minutes in all situations.
During his three seasons in Vegas, Schmidt was the Golden Knights' blue-line leader in average ice time in the regular season, at 21:59 per game, with a healthy dose of that coming on both the power play and the penalty kill. He's a pretty consistent point producer — 31 points in 59 games in the regular season last year, followed by nine points in 20 games in the playoffs — and he has been a solid plus player every year he has been in the league.
Schmidt, of course, was picked up Vegas from Washington in the expansion draft. He'll be reunited in Vancouver with old teammates Holtby and Jay Beagle, although he was on the other side in 2018, when the Capitals won their Stanley Cup.
A Minnesota native, he was signed by Washington as a free agent after three years at the University of Minnesota. After starting in the AHL, he became a full-time NHL player for two seasons in Washington, but couldn't earn one of those precious protected slots before the expansion draft. The Caps weren't happy to lose him, but he exceeded expectations in a big way when he got to Vegas and was able to take on a more significant role.
Schmidt turned 29 in July and is signed for five more seasons at a cap hit of $5.95 million. He's not cheap, but he is good, and should help solidify Vancouver's defense in the years to come.
You might remember — Schmidt signed his six-year contract extension early in the 2018-19 season, while he was in the midst of serving a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL's performance-enhancing drugs policy.
Click here to read what I wrote about that at the time. Both Schmidt and the Golden Knights were adamant that he hadn't knowingly broken the rules. And I mused about whether George McPhee's penchant for signing his Golden Misfits to big contract extensions might prove to be a problem — somewhere around the beginning of the 2020-21 season.
The Canucks have lost some important leaders this week in Markstrom and Tanev, but don't be surprised to see Holtby and Schmidt have big voices as they settle into the team. Holtby is known for his advocacy across causes and work in the community, and Schmidt was the notorious leader of Vegas's "fun committee" while they were in the bubble in Edmonton.
Schmidt will be taking questions from the media on Tuesday afternoon.
With Schmidt now on the roster,
CapFriendly shows the Canucks with 21 contracts on the books, Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette still to sign, and just under $2 million in cap space.
Seems like a tight squeeze. At this point, the most likely option for meaningful relief would be if Micheal Ferland and his $3.5 million cap hit go back onto long-term injured reserve when the season begins.
According to Rick Dhaliwal, Benning isn't finished trying to supplement his blue line. Long-time farmhand Ashton Sautner, who's a UFA, is in their sights, and there might be more still to come.
To close today — a shout-out to the Aquilini family and the Canucks for continuing to use their hospitality skills and the kitchen capacity at Rogers Arena to help deliver meals to people who need it most as the challenges around Covid-19 continue.
The meal donations began in March and are now set to continue at least through Christmas.
And finally, if you're interested in a broader look at the trends we've seen so far through a very different-looking free-agency period, here's the link to my new piece for Forbes:
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