The Vancouver Canucks added another name to their offseason board on day two of NHL free agency, bringing in forward Matthew Stienburg on a one-year, two-way contract.
General manager Ryan Johnson announced the deal, which is the club’s first signing of the day and its fifth since the free-agent window opened. According to PuckPedia, Stienburg will make $850,000 in the NHL and $160,000 in the AHL.
Stienburg, 25, entered the league as a Colorado Avalanche pick, going in the third round, 63rd overall, in the 2019 NHL draft. In that draft year, he wore the captain’s patch at St.
Andrew’s College of the Prep Hockey Conference and put together a big offensive season with 31 goals and 35 assists for 66 points in 48 games. He then moved on to Cornell University.
The Halifax, Nova Scotia native spent three seasons at Cornell and produced 46 points in 73 NCAA games, scoring 20 goals and adding 26 assists. Once the 2022-23 NCAA season ended, he turned pro and appeared in four games for the Colorado Eagles in the AHL, recording his first professional point and another assist in the postseason.
Stienburg later got his first NHL look with Colorado in 2024-25, playing eight games for the Avalanche. He did not register a point, but he did collect 22 penalty minutes. That season was cut short overall, with Stienburg appearing in just 13 games between the NHL and AHL, and a shoulder injury limiting him to eight AHL games last year.
At 6-foot-1 and a right-shot centreman/winger, Stienburg gives Vancouver a player who can push for a job next season. Still, with only 21 games played over the past two years, the more likely route is AHL conditioning. He’ll be in the mix with Riley Patterson, Ty Mueller and Chase Wouters for center minutes in Abbotsford, and he can also move to the wing if Braeden Cootes does not make Vancouver’s roster.
Stienburg is the third potential AHL signing for new general manager Ryan Johnson, after the club’s Day 1 additions in free agency.
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