At this point, the Summer of 2017 is going down in history as the Year the Canucks Missed Out on Jordan Weal.
I'm only half-kidding. One day after meeting with Vancouver Canucks brass, the 25-year-old North Vancouver native re-upped for two years with his current team, the Philadelphia Flyers.
I have to say, the Flyers stepped up, financially. Weal has played just 37 NHL games in his career, so he has mostly been making minor-league money. He was on a contract with an NHL cap hit of $650,000 in 2016-17. His new contract nearly doubles that, and he also gets a cool $1 million signing bonus up front.
Weal may prove to be worth that money but it's not exactly a bargain deal, either.
I suspect Sam Gagner is also going to do all right for himself when he signs. Sounds like Chicago is the front-runner, though it seems like a return to Columbus could still be in the cards.
So, it's on to Plan B for the Canucks. Some new names got added to the mix on Friday, thanks to a rash of buyouts:
Poor Ryan Murphy. He was the other half of the trade that saw Eddie Lack move to Calgary on Thursday night; I don't think he was a member of the Flames for even 12 hours.
Not to be confused with Ryan Murray of the Columbus Blue Jackets—or with Ryan Murphy, the TV producer—hockey's Ryan Murphy is a 24-year-old right-shot defenseman who was taken 12th overall by the Carolina Hurricanes back in 2011. He spent much of last season in the press box as a healthy scratch, so clearly he was not a favourite of Bill Peters.
He seems to me like a player who could be acquired inexpensively and given a fresh start.
Word is that the Canucks are interested in the other player that was bought out by the Flames.
Bouma's 27 but has had two injury-filled seasons where his offense has dried up after scoring 16 goals in 2014-15—then signed a three-year contract with a cap hit of $2.2 million per season that reflected that level of output. Bouma managed just seven points in each of the last two seasons.
A couple of other names being tossed around:
• Landon (son of Ray) Ferraro - Born in Ray's hometown of Trail, BC, Landon's now 25. A centre, he was a second-round pick by the Detroit Red Wings in 2009 but has shuffled around a fair amount in his brief NHL career. He played 22 games with the AHL's Chicago Wolves last year before his season came to an end in December after he suffered an ACL injury.
• Michael Del Zotto - Drafted 20th overall by the New York Rangers in 2008, Michael Del Zotto was supposed to become an elite offensive defenseman, but his work on the other side of the puck has always held him back. The Nashville Predators gave up on him after he scored one goal in 25 games after they acquired him from the New York Rangers in 2013-14.
The Philadelphia Flyers signed him as a reclamation project for the 2014-15 season and he shone, scoring 10 goals and 32 points on a $1.3 million deal. That earned him a new two-year contract at $3.875 million per season but his production vanished again. He had 13 points in 52 games in 2015-16 and 18 points in 51 games in 2016-17.
If the Canucks think Del Zotto can help boost their scoring from the back end, I hope the experiment comes at a very reasonable price point.
Finally, on the free-agent front:
The fun starts for real at 9 a.m. PT on Saturday morning. Once again, I'll be doing the live stream for Bleacher Report, so I won't blog until after at least some of the dust has settled.
After that's over, we'll turn our attention to Development Camp. Sounds like the prospects are in town this weekend, and the on-ice portion of the event will take place next week.
I will be at the on-ice sessions, starting Tuesday at UBC. Looking forward to getting a look at the new guys first hand!
What better way to lead into my final draft profile for 2017...
Pick 188 - Matt Brassard - D - 6'2" 197 pounds - Born August 8, 1998, Barrie, Ontario
With their seventh-round pick, the Canucks picked up defenseman Matt Brassard from the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. Brassard turns 19 in August, so he's another player who went through one draft without having been selected.
Matt was ranked No. 137 among North American skaters by Central Scouting this year, so the Canucks may have gotten a bargain, picking him up in the seventh round.
Brassard split his 2016-17 OHL season between the Barrie Colts and the Oshawa Generals. In total, he scored 12 goals and added 20 assists in 62 regular-season games, then added another four points—and 20 penalty minutes—in 11 playoff games.
Brassard has good size, a bit of an edge, and is said to have decent mobility.
If you're a fancystats fan, he actually compares quite favourably to none other than Russian stud Mikhail Sergachev in terms of shot generation:
Matt's father John is a former firefighter and member of Barrie City Council who is now the Member of Parliament for the Barrie-Innisfil riding, representing the Conservative Party.
Click here to take a look at John Brassard's website.
The only video of Matt Brassard that I can find is a few clips that have been posted to Twitter by his offseason skating coach. Nice to see he's working hard!
After going through one draft without hearing his name, Brassard seems extra-excited about development camp.
Looks like Vancouver will be showing the kids its best side over this long weekend!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»