Canucks sign forward Joseph LaBate to entry-level contract
8 years ago
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The Vancouver Canucks have come to terms on a contract with forward Joseph LaBate, a fourth-round pick of the club back in 2011, the club announced on Thursday.
LaBate, 22, has played the past four seasons for the Wisconsin Badgers of the NCAA. Though contract details haven’t been released by virtue of LaBate’s age we can confidently assert that LaBate’s signed a two-year contract.
Our own Josh Weissbock argued that LaBate was worth signing, despite his pedestrian NCAA counting statistics, just a few months ago:
He played all four years at Wisconsin without missing any significant time away. His scoring numbers, never raising much higher than a half point a game, have never been that impressive at first glance, until you realize that Wisconsin has not been a high scoring team during his tenure there. LaBate has been in the top 5 scoring on his team all four years. Even this season with LaBate having scored just 18 points in 35 games, he is 2nd on his team in scoring.There may be some talent within LaBate and from my perspective he is worth signing. He also has age working for him as he is still only 21 years old and has a few more years of development and growth until he hits his peak.
Also working in LaBate’s favour? His size. The American-born winger was a lanky high schooler when the Canucks first selected him back in 2011, but he’s now listed at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. Considering that alone, it would’ve been a pretty substantial surprise were Jim Benning to have allowed LaBate to slip through the Canucks’ fingers.
The young winger is already with the Utica Comets on an amateur tryout, and we’d imagine that his contract will likely begin for the start of the 2015-16 league year (which opens on July 1). In any event the LaBate signing doesn’t impact or tell us anything about the contract status of Jordan Subban, who remains unsigned.
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