How Swede it is for Canucks
Eriksson’s chemistry with Sedins bodes well for the upcoming season
Chemistry is crucial for any hired gun. Just ask Radim Vrbata.
The right winger talked endlessly of finding the right fit with the Vancouver Canucks. A 31-goal season will do that, and when his goal production plummeted to 13, the departure as an unrestricted free agent only brought the acquisition of Loui Eriksson on Friday into sharper focus.
Eriksson and the Sedins are all about chemistry. It dates back to the Swedish national team and how Henrik and Daniel had the instinctive knack of working with the winger to power their country to the 2013 world championship title. Eriksson led the trio with five goals and five assists in 10 tournament games.
And while a six-year, US$36million contract is the cost to land a first-line player in today’s open market, the intangibles that the 30-goal Eriksson brings to prop up a 27th-ranked power play and 29th-rated offence are vital to help get the club back to the playoffs.
The World Cup of Hockey will disrupt National Hockey League training camps for many clubs as they look to align their top trio. The Canucks will benefit from Eriksson joining the Sedins in the Toronto tournament that runs from Sept. 17- Oct. 1.
“We’ll see, but I think that’s the plan, and it will definitely give us an advantage at the start of the season,” said Eriksson. “They’re such smart players. It was so easy for me when I first started playing with them to find chemistry. We kind of play the same way. We like to get the puck and give it back to each other.
“Maybe the first couple of games will be a learning process to see what they’re thinking and how they play. But we seem to match up real well, especially in the world championship where we came together real well. Hopefully we can play like we did at that time and have good success.” There’s a lot to like in Eriksson. The skill level is obvious. The left-shot winger plays the right side and will also improve a lagging penalty kill.
That’s a good start. And the 6-foot-3, 183-pound Goteborg native, who turns 31 on July 14, should stand the test of time longer than a bang-and-crash winger like Milan Lucic, who landed a sevenyear deal Friday with the Edmonton Oilers and has some hard miles on his hockey odometer.
The fact the Boston Bruins made several attempts to re-sign Eriksson — an original four-year extension was moved to five years in a final attempt to keep him in place — speaks to his ability to attract several free-agency suitors.
“He’s a smart, versatile, two-way player,” said Canucks general manager Jim Benning. “We wanted to up the skill level of our team and get our power play better. Philip Larsen on the back end will also help us out.
“Loui has an excellent ability to use his reach around the net and get scoring opportunities. We felt we got our skill level better and that we had a good day today.”
Eriksson’s contract calls for $28 million to be paid in signing bonuses. He has a no-movement clause in the first two years, followed by a no-trade clause the following two years and then a limited no-trade clause in the final two years.
It should provide peace of mind off the ice for the father of three daughters and a considerable challenge on the ice to be part of an accelerated turnaround for the franchise.
Knowing the coach won’t hurt. Willie Desjardins was an associate in Dallas when Eriksson put up 27and 26-goal seasons before being dealt to the Bruins in the multiplayer Tyler Sequin swap.
“I have good memories and he (Desjardins) seems like a really smart coach,” said Eriksson. “You can definitely learn a lot from him and I really liked him. I want to see him as a head coach as well and what he can bring and what kind of system he wants us to play.
“I’m excited to see what he can bring as a coach because he has really good qualities.”
The questions now are does Benning add a second-tier free-agent winger with skill and grit with approximately $4.2 million left in salary cap space?
Or, does he go the trade route? And how does that right side stack up?
There’s Jannik Hansen. There’s the one-year commitment to Swedish Elite League speedster Anton Rodin, Jake Virtanen, Emerson Etem, Derek Dorsett and Alex Burrows.
Rodin, Dorsett and Burrows can play the left side, but do you continue to develop Virtanen here or start him in Utica? Or, in the bigboy Pacific Division, do you need his girth?
Etem is on a one-year, one-way, show-us deal, and Benning is not going to buy out Burrows when the second window opens in August, so that will add some level of drama.
“He’s the heart and soul of that group in there (locker-room),” said Benning.
Trades appear to be the more likely route.
“We’re talking to teams and it would be more of a trade scenario than what we were looking at before (free agency),” said Benning. “If I had a crystal ball, I would say we’re trying to add a winger who has some size and grit to him and can score.” OVERTIME: Larsen, 26, signed a one-year, one-way contract for $1.025 million and projects in a third pairing with Luca Sbisa. The Canucks also signed minorleague centre Jayson Megna, 26, to a one-year, one-way contract for $600,000.
We wanted to up the skill level of our team and get our power play better. Philip Larsen on the back end will also help us out.