On Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks announced new contracts for farmhands Mike Zalewski and Richard Bachman.
I ran over the details of Zalewski's situation in
this blog earlier in the week.
The Bachman announcement was new.
Bachman's current deal is a one-way contract with a cap hit of $575,000, so the salary structure does change on the extension for the goalie, who turns 29 later this month.
Originally signed to provide some stability in net for the Utica Comets after Jacob Markstrom was promoted following the 2014-15 season, Bachman had been excellent with the Oklahoma City Barons, but was just so-so in Utica last season.
With Oklahoma City in 2014-15, Bachman was 14-5-3 with a 2.38 goals-against average and .918 save percentage. Last year, he went 17-12-5 in Utica, with a goals-against average of 2.75 and a save percentage of .900. He was outplayed by Joe Cannata, who signed a two-way contract with the Washington Capitals when he became an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Next season, it's expected that we'll see Bachman and Thatcher Demko share the netminding duties in Utica. The real benefit of Bachman's contract extension lies in the fact that he's a goalie under contract that the Canucks can expose to Las Vegas in next year's expansion draft.
He's a relatively inexpensive asset to use for that purpose. It's tough, at this point, to strategize how Vegas will use its expansion picks. The team will have to choose three goalies, so that third slot could, quite possibly, be used to pick a veteran starter that could carry the load on the farm. It'll be quite the puzzle as new general manager George McPhee sorts through his options on every team's list of unprotected players.
I like the choice of McPhee as the first boss for the new team. He got his start in NHL management with the Canucks under Pat Quinn in 1992, and did well enough in that role to move up to GM of the Washington Capitals in 1997. He didn't get the Caps to the Stanley Cup, but McPhee oversaw a generally successful franchise and kept his job for an impressive 17 years.
So, Bachman's contract is another item checked off the Canucks' to-do list. Will Olli Juolevi's entry-level contract be next?
The Edmonton Oilers signed Jesse Puljujarvi to his first deal on Wednesday, which leaves only Juolevi and Auston Matthews currently unsigned among this year's top draft picks:
There's a little bit of anxiety in Toronto about whether or not ultra-conservative Lou Lamoreillo will pony up a generous-enough bonus structure to keep Matthews' deal in line with the other members of his draft class. Lamoreillo typically takes a team-first attitude and shied away from offering big bonuses to players on entry-level deals when he was in New Jersey, but the coffers are much deeper in Toronto, so I expect that deal will get done in due time.
Juolevi's deal should certainly be nailed down before much longer. Here's what Trevor Linden had to say about the situation during a radio interview last week at Development Camp:
It will be interesting to see where Juolevi's deal slots in with the rest of his draft class.
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