The Vancouver Canucks have signed free agent Loui Eriksson to a six-year, $36 million deal.
Eriksson, 30, had 30 goals and 33 assists for the Boston Bruins in 2015-2016, the final year of a six-year-contract.
“Loui is an excellent two-way forward, an elite scorer and playmaker with great defensive instincts,” said General Manager Jim Benning in a statement.
“He is an accomplished player who helps our team now and in the future as a leader and role model for our young players to follow. We’re excited to have Loui join our team and help us compete every night.”
In his career, Eriksson has 212 goals and 292 assists in 725 regular season games with Boston and Dallas.
The Canucks also bolstered their blue line by acquiring defenceman Philip Larsen in a trade from Edmonton. Larsen signed a one-year deal worth US$1,025,000.
“When we went through the process this summer thinking about how we can get our team better, we wanted to up the skill level of our team,” said Benning. “I think today we were able to do that with Loui and Philip Larsen on the back end.
“They are both power-play guys. Loui, his ability to use his reach around the net and get scoring opportunities. We felt to add to our skill level, to get our power play better, we had a good day today.”
To get Larsen, the Canucks traded a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2017 draft to Edmonton.
“He’s a good skater,” said Benning. “He has the ability to walk the line and get shots through from the point.”
Vancouver also signed forward Jayson Megna to a one-year, US$600,000 deal.
Megna, 26, split last season between the New York Rangers and the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack. In six games with the Rangers, the six-foot-one, 195-pound native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had one goal and one assist. In 68 games with Hartford, he had 15 goals and 29 assists.
In other moves, Vancouver signed forwards Michael Chaput and Borna Rendulic and defenceman Chad Billins each to a one-year, two-way contracts.
One player the Canucks lost is defenceman Dan Hamhuis, who signed a two-year, US$7.5 million deal with Dallas.
Benning said obtaining defenceman Erik Gudbranson in a trade with Florida made Hamhuis expandable.
“We were in contact with him (Hamhuis) all the way until about a week ago,” said Benning. “We decided that getting Gudbranson, we are going to go with a younger group on the back end.”
With the Edmonton Oilers signing Milan Lucic and the Calgary Flames adding Troy Brouwer, two of Vancouver’s division rivals have gotten bigger and tougher.
Benning said the Canucks will continue to look to add players.
“We’re talking to teams now,” he said. “It would probably be more of a trade scenario now.
“We still have a little bit of money to spend on the cap. We’re going to continue to talk to teams and if we can make our team better, we are going to try to continue to do that.”
– With files from The Canadian Press
Comments