The Vancouver Canucks had a pretty successful 2010-2011 season, winning the President’s Trophy as the best regular season team, and then making it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to the Boston Bruins.
So tweaks, rather than major overhauls, are what general manager Mike Gillis is looking at to improve his roster.
The Canucks lost forwards Raffi Torres (Phoenix) and Tanner Glass (Winnipeg) as free agents, and also dealt defenseman Christian Ehrhoff to the New York Islanders when it became apparent that contract talks were going nowhere.
Otherwise, the Canucks have pretty much the same roster as last year. Mike Gillis signed Maxim Lapierre, Kevin Bieksa and Andrew Alberts to contract extensions prior to July 1.
The morning of July 1, before the free-agency period started at noon eastern, two other impending free agents signed new deals.
Veteran defender Sami Salo signed a new one-year, $2 million contract.
Chris Higgins, a versatile winger brought in at the trade deadline who had three game winning goals in the playoffs, signed a two-year contract extension with a cap hit of $1.9 million.< ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Joel Prosser
NHL Free Agency 2011: How Do the Vancouver Canucks Look After July 1?
July 2nd, 2011 by Joel Prosser Leave a reply »
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