Vancouver Canucks Best Contracts (2005-2020)

The following is a condensed preview of the Vancouver Canucks chapter of my new book, Hunting Bargains in a Salary Cap World. If you purchase the book, you will receive a much more in-depth analysis of all these contracts, including year-by-year statistics, a customized “basket of comparables”, and memorable quotes from players, GMs, and coaches. Below is just a tiny sample of what’s in the book, with a few sentences clipped from the summaries. 

Entry level contracts not included.

Vancouver Canucks

 

 

Six of the Canucks 15 best contracts belonged to Sedin-Sedin-Kesler, Henrik winning the Hart and Art Ross, Kesler winning the Selke, and Daniel also winning the Art Ross. These were pieces that were originally acquired by Brian Burke, who laid the original foundation upon which all success thereafter was built. There were some dark winters in Van City, but Benning appears to have pulled the organization out of darkness with some astute drafting. The Canucks upset the defending champion St. Louis Blues in the 2020 playoffs and pushed the Vegas Golden Knights to game 7.

 

 

Henrik was the League MVP in year one when he led the league in scoring. Over this contract he scored 382 PTS in 364 GP in the regular season (86-point pace) with another 44 PTS in 46 GP in the playoffs and came within 1 win of the Stanley Cup. What’s remarkable here is that the Sedins were set to become unrestricted free agents and could have solicited much more money and term on the open market. They just never had any intention to leave Vancouver.

 

 

Daniel was nominated for League MVP in year two when he led the league in scoring (edged out in Hart voting by Corey Perry). Over this contract Danny scored 343 PTS in 337 GP in the regular season with another 39 PTS in 43 GP in the playoffs and came within 1 win of the Stanley Cup.

 

What the Canucks got was a rapid increase in his scoring pace each of these 3 years, culminating with 75 PTS and a Selke Trophy nomination in the final season. Kesler provided 244 GP, 171 PTS (57-point pace), 570 Shots, and 2019 face off wins (54.1% W%) for a cap adjusted price of $7.9M. That’s a bargain.

 

They took a gamble on a good young defenseman and it paid dividends. The Canucks got 254 GP, 146 PTS (47-point pace), 623 shots, and 68 power play points out of this contract. They also received 20 PTS in 40 playoff GP that included a trip to the Stanley Cup final. A top pairing D for this price is sensational value.

 

If you’re only looking at scoring, Ryan Kesler really only had one bargain season under this treaty, year one. That one year was spectacular, scoring 92 PTS (including playoffs), and helping carry the Canucks to the Stanley Cup final. He also won the Selke Trophy and ran away with the vote. Over the whole contract he played 413 regular season games with 278 PTS (55-point pace) and 4414 Face-off wins. He also scored 41 PTS in 57 playoff games.

 

It didn’t take long for Bo to become a bargain, after an injury cost him nearly 20 games in year one. This kid has a bright future in the NHL at the critical center position. In year three he was pacing for the best season of his career while playing mostly with Tanner Pearson and Loui Eriksson. Better linemates could push Bo’s ceiling even higher. The back half of this deal looks to be an extreme bargain that will be a contender for my best contracts in the league list for 2020.

 

The Canucks bought 100 goals for $8M ($10.7M if you account for cap inflation). That’s a great return on a cheap asset. While we can certainly say that Burrows was underpaid on this deal, that production was only possible because he played with the Sedin twins. Without those elite level passers feeding him the puck, he never would have approached that many goals. Burrows does deserve some credit for being the perfect fit on that line, but there’s no evidence proving that he could have succeeded on that level with lesser linemates.

The investment produced 246 GP and 239 PTS (80-point pace) at an inexpensive price. While both brothers produced very similar statistics, Henrik should have earned more because he’s a center. The two always signed for the same amount of money every contract, despite one being worth more than the other. Did their agent ever tell them that? Hank should have gotten a different agent and perhaps he would have gotten more honest advice.

 

At this stage of development, Daniel’s shot generation was much smaller (leading to just 22 goals), as Anson Carter served as the primary trigger man on that line in 2006. Regardless of what position Danny played, the 240 PTS in 245 GP that the Canucks got was an absolute steal at that price.

 

 

Like many of his teammates, Salo loved living in Vancouver and was not hungry to try seeking more money elsewhere. Injuries did limit his maximum output over these 2 seasons, but he did average 46 PTS per 82 GP when healthy. Sami would bank $14M to stay in Vancouver when this expired.

 

The Canucks may not have bought long term security, but the annual cap hit is cheap for the production he’s providing. Boeser will still be an RFA when this expires, and most of the team’s bad contracts will be off the books when that happens, putting them in a good position to lock him up to a long-term deal. This kid is a natural sniper and real threat to hit a 40-goal season over the next 3 years.

 

It didn’t take long for Cory to supplant Roberto, with Schneider starting a majority of games in the lockout shortened 2013 season. Gillis quickly turned some heads when he traded Schneider to New Jersey for the 9th pick overall in the 2013 draft, which landed future best contract Bo Horvat. Over these 3 years, Cory played 144 games with a 2.14 GAA and .924 SV%.  The Devils got a great return on their investment in the final year.

 

Once he inked this 2-year bridge to unrestricted free agency, Kevin evolved into a whole new player, potting 12 goals and 42 PTS while averaging over 24 minutes per game in ice time. Had Bieksa not suffered a deep cut to his leg early in year 2 that cost him 40 games, this contract would have ranked higher on the list.

 

Luongo put up a few years of Vezina calibre goaltending, but we’re not going to call this one a bargain. They paid him more than you’re supposed to pay elite goaltenders on an annual basis. However this list is the BEST contracts, not the best BARGAIN contracts, so here’s Lou.

 

Once the contract began, Ryan Miller was gone and Markstrom was the man. It wasn’t until the halfway point of this deal that Markstrom started playing like an above average goaltender, having been limited by the fact that the Canucks were a bad team knee deep in the rebuilding process. He started to catch fire in Dec 2018 and has not looked back since.