No greener pastures for Pouliot
One-year deal gives young rearguard flexibility while adding depth to Canucks’ defence
Derrick Pouliot is betting on himself.
The Vancouver Canucks defenceman agreed to a one-year contract extension for US$1.1 million on Tuesday. His agent Eustace King said the 24-year-old Pouliot is buoyed by the opportunity to prove untapped potential while maintaining continuity with his career and not moving to another NHL club.
“A one-year deal gives everybody maximum flexibility and Derrick can put together another year and be better,” King said of his client, who earned $800,000 last season.
“He understands it. He totally gets it. A two-year deal doesn’t make sense. It’s one or three and buy a year of UFA. It changes the landscape.”
The Canucks didn’t qualify the 6-foot, 208-pound RFA defender by Monday’s deadline, and that relinquished his arbitration rights. It made the Estevan, Sask. native an unrestricted free agent, but the Canucks always intended to get something done. They wanted to avoid an arbitration settlement of one or two years because of everything that’s taken into consideration in the process.
“He understands the situation and where he’s at in his career,” said Canucks’ GM Jim Benning. “We traded for him (Oct. 4) and I thought he started off real good but there was a part where he took a dip, but he finished off well.
“With any young player, you get those inconsistencies. But he likes the city and what we’re doing here, and wants to be a part of it.”
The Canucks have seven defencemen signed while Troy Stecher is an RFA.
They could add to the mix if 2018 first-round pick Quinn Hughes is signed and makes the club, and if Olli Juolevi recovers faster than expected from back surgery and joins the club at some point in the fall.
“The last two years, we were on our 10th or 11th defenceman, and one thing I learned in our division is that you better have a lot,” said Benning of his injury-plagued back end.
Pouliot was tied for second in club blue-liner points last season with 22 (3-19). He was seventh in average ice time (17:51) and an occasional healthy scratch by Canucks’ coach Travis Green, his junior mentor in Portland, who often lauded the defenceman’s upside.
The contract extension allows Pouliot to be an RFA next summer, retain his arbitration rights and move closer to unrestricted free agency. And for the Canucks, the slight bump in Pouliot’s salary is better than what arbitration may have brought. An arbiter could have considered overall performance, statistics from all previous seasons, length of NHL service, special qualities of leadership or public appeal and the salary of any player believed to be comparable.
In a player-elected settlement of one year and greater than $4,222,941, the Canucks could walk away from the salary and make Pouliot a UFA. In a two-year settlement greater than $4,222,941, the Canucks could have walked away from the second year, making Pouliot a UFA at the end of Year 1.
Any settlement less than the walk away threshold would hold the Canucks to the deal. What would Pouliot have been awarded in arbitration? Who knows?
Nate Schmidt was 25 and an RFA with Washington when claimed by Vegas in the expansion draft. He had 17 points (3-14) in 60 games with the Capitals in 2016-17. He was awarded a two-year arbitration settlement of $2.225 million annually.
As for a non-arbitration deal, Derek Forbert of Los Angeles was 25 and an RFA when the defenceman signed a two-year extension on Oct. 19 for $5.05 million, a $2.525 annual salary cap hit. He was coming off an 18-point season (2-16) and earned $650,000 on a two-way deal.