The Vancouver Canucks have had their share of smart bets over the years, but the misses can be brutal when the dollars get big and the production disappears. Looking back at the franchise’s worst contract signings, three names stand out for very different reasons: Sam Gagner, Loui Eriksson and Mark Messier.
Sam Gagner lands at No. 3, and his case is really a combination of paying starter money to a bottom-six player and using him in a way that never seemed to fit. Vancouver handed him a three-year deal worth a $3.15 million average annual value after he put up 18 goals and 50 points with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2016-17.
But a lot of that success came in a sheltered role and with power-play help, and once he arrived in Vancouver, the numbers fell off fast. In 2017-18, Gagner finished with 10 goals and 31 points in 74 games, including just three power-play goals.
He bounced around the top nine, bigger responsibilities exposed the weaknesses in his two-way game, and after seven games the following season, he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers. In total, Gagner finished with 11 goals and 34 points in 81 games with the Canucks, with four of his goals coming on the power play.
Loui Eriksson checks in at No. 2, and this is the kind of contract that instantly jumps to mind when people talk about Canucks misfires. Vancouver signed him to a six-year, $36 million deal after he scored 30 goals and 63 points in 2015-16, banking on his scoring touch and his chemistry with the Sedins from their time with Sweden.
Instead, the fit never really materialized. Eriksson never got to 15 goals or 30 points in any of his five seasons with the Canucks.
His best year came in 2018-19, when he posted 11 goals and 29 points in 81 games. By the end of his run in Vancouver, he had 38 goals and 90 points in 252 games.
He was solid enough defensively, but the lack of speed and the lack of offense turned the signing into a flat-out dud.
And then there’s Mark Messier at No. 1, the name that still hits the loudest in Vancouver. His arrival came with a five-year, $30 million deal, but the contract is only part of why he sits atop this list.
He was already the villain from the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, and his time with the Canucks became tied to one of the darkest stretches in franchise history. Beyond taking the captaincy from Trevor Linden and watching team staples like Kirk McLean, Martin Gelinas, Gino Odjick and Dave Babych move on under Mike Keenan after Pat Quinn was replaced, the on-ice results didn’t come close to matching the paycheck.
Over three seasons, Messier produced 52 goals and 162 points in 207 games. His best season came in 1997-08, when he had 22 goals and 60 points in 82 games.
He never had a point-per-game season, and that fell well short of the $6 million annual price tag. He was overpaid, he underperformed and he left a dark cloud over the organization for three years.
These three deals didn’t all fail in the same way, but they all missed hard. Some were overpays that never caught up to the production. One became something much heavier than that, hurting the team on the ice and around it.
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