I may have missed my calling as Zack Kassian's agent.
The Canucks announced today that Kassian has signed a new two-year deal.
Earlier this week, I estimated that Kassian could be looking for Brayden Schenn-type money, around $2.5 million a season. So, props to Jim Benning and his group for saving the team $750,000 a year on the contract. Nice to have Kassian locked up early in the summer at very reasonable money.
The press releases are coming fast and furious from Rogers Arena this week. Yesterday, minor-league defenseman Alex Biega was signed. Today, it was AHL goaltender Joe Cannata, as well as depth defenseman Yannick Weber. I was a little stingier on this contract, suggesting he'd sign at about $800,000. Pretty close:
That leaves around $4.1 million (before Jacob Markstrom is moved) to sign Chris Tanev and Linden Vey. Tanev's contract could be the tough one:
In Pap's story for the
Vancouver Sun yesterday, Jim Benning indicates that the main pieces are now in place for next season.
“We’re probably going to go into the season with this team,” the GM said on a conference call prior to the Kassian agreement. “We’re going to see where we stand and go from there. We’re working on our RFA guys today and we want to get them done.
“As far as the UFAs, if something shakes out at the end, we still have a little cap room. But I think we accomplished the things that we set out to accomplish. We wanted to add an experienced goaltender, and we did that with Ryan Miller, and we wanted to add a scorer.”
I'm relieved that most of you aren't as apprehensive about the Vrbata signing as I am. As of Friday morning, only about 14 percent of the voters in the poll rated the signing as a five or less on my 1-10 scale. He's getting some acclaim for his shootout skills as well as his work on the power play. Hopefully he really is an underappreciated gem and not the guy who only lasted 18 games in Tampa Bay last time he signed a free-agent deal outside Phoenix, back in 2008-09.
I know this is a touchy subject, but it bears mentioning that the Canucks are no further ahead with their no trade clauses than they were when Mike Gillis was fired. The new brass managed to ship out Kesler and Garrison, then replaced them with shiny new modified NTCs for Vrbata and Ryan Miller. Now that we're into July, Jannik Hansen's no-trade has also kicked in.
We still have a hefty 10 no-trade clauses on the books, so here's hoping that the core will bounce back as hoped and the new guys will find the chemistry that'll make the group better as a whole.
What do you think? Have the Canucks done enough to join the playoff conversation next season? I'll keep today's poll question very simple:
Prospects Development Camp Starts Monday
Next week, keep an eye out around town. Thirty-six of the Canucks' prospects will be here to participate in the Prospects Development Camp. The team's newest draft choices will be on hand—though Jake Virtanen won't be participating in on-ice workouts as he recovers from his surgery. Other notable names include OHL scoring star Dane Fox, emerging defensive prospect Anton Cederholm and the highly-touted prospects—Gaunce, Horvat and Shinkaruk.
For his part, Hunter Shinkaruk is fully recovered from his own surgery and is ready to go:
On-ice activities will take place on weekday mornings at UBC, wrapping up with a four-on-four tournament on Friday. Here's a complete list of the participants:
No on-ice activities are scheduled for Wednesday, so I'd bet that's when the gang will make its annual ascent up the Grouse Grind.
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