The Canucks kept busy on opening day of free agency, and they weren’t finished after landing Paul Cotter, Luke Schenn, Akil Thomas and Trey Fix-Wolansky.
Vancouver general manager Ryan Johnson announced that the club has signed defenceman Jamie Oleksiak to a two-year contract carrying a $5 million AAV.
According to PuckPedia, the deal includes a 12-team no-trade list in each year.
Oleksiak is 33, shoots left, and brings a massive frame at 6’7″ and 252 pounds. He entered the league as the 14th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft by the Dallas Stars. His early years in Dallas were uneven, with the big blueliner bouncing in and out of the lineup and never getting into more than 41 games in any of those first six NHL seasons.
From there, his path took him to Pittsburgh for a short stop before Dallas brought him back a little more than a year later. He later signed a five-year deal with Seattle at a $4.6 million AAV when the Kraken were just getting started.
Oleksiak ended up playing 389 of a possible 410 games across five seasons in Seattle, producing 21 goals and 68 assists for 89 points. For his first three seasons there, he logged between 19 and 20 minutes a night, but that dipped to under 17 minutes last season.
The move comes after Vancouver traded left-shot defenceman Marcus Pettersson to the New York Rangers earlier on Wednesday. Oleksiak is expected to step into that same stay-at-home role on the left side, and the Canucks now appear to have their blue line lined up for next season with Oleksiak joining Filip Hronek, Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, Elias Pettersson, Luke Schenn and Victor Mancini among the seven defencemen likely to cycle through the lineup.
Johnson said the club sees a lot to like in the veteran defender.
“Jamie is a big body who moves very well on the ice,” said Johnson. “He’s a solid two-way defenceman who isn’t afraid to use his size and strength to his advantage, and we like his reach and athleticism.
He competes very hard and has grown into a good leader in the dressing room. Adding him to the mix on the backend will help us in many positive ways.”
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