Kevin Bieksa

Bieksa has spent the entirety of his NHL career in Vancouver

Kevin Bieksa has committed his services to the Vancouver Canucks for the foreseeable future. Bieksa and the Canucks agreed to a five year, 23 million dollar deal, four days before July 1^st, when Bieksa was set to become an unrestricted free agent. The 30 year old defencemen played a key role in the Canucks run to the Stanley Cup finals and had indicated he would take something of a “hometown discount” to stay in Vancouver. Bieksa’s cap hit is a manageable 4.6 million, a figure that should give the Canucks enough cap space to retain Christian Ehrhoff. When paired with Dan Hamhuis, Bieksa was at his absolute best, free to operate in a more offensive role. Now, Hamhuis and Bieksa are both signed through the 2015-2016 season and they provide the Canucks with a reliable defensive pairing to use against their opponents top line. The question with Bieksa has always been a health related issue. He has missed 101 regular season games over the past four seasons, having twice suffered unfortunate and inexplicable leg injuries, the result of two separate skate related wounds. When healthy, Bieksa is an integral part of the Canucks lineup and it’s the obvious reason that the front office decided resigning him was a priority. 

Kevin Bieksa wasn’t the only Canucks player signed on Monday. Trade deadline acquisition Maxim Lapierre returns in the form of a two year, 2 million dollar contract. Lapierre filled in admirably for Manny Malhotra as the third line centre when Malhotra was sidelined with a serious eye injury. Lapierre won’t contribute much offensively (only one goal in 19 regular season games following the trade from Anaheim,) but he is a dependable bottom six forward and will likely be Vancouver’s fourth line centre for the 2011-2012 season. 

Ehrhoff could command upwards of 5 million dollars on the open market

Now the attention of the Canucks front office moves to Ehrhoff. The soon to be 29 year old defenceman is coming off his first 50 point season and has been awarded the Babe Pratt trophy for the Canucks best defenceman (or in Vancouver’s case, healthiest defenceman,) in consecutive seasons. All signs point to Ehrhoff testing free agency and it is likely that he will receive a significant offer from another team in need of a puck moving, power play pivot. If Ehrhoff chooses to take slightly less and resign with Vancouver, it would be hard to argue against the quality of the Canucks defensive corps.