Oreskovich, Canucks Finally Agree to Terms

The Canucks have re-signed fourth-line right-winger Victor Oreskovich after an arduous summer of negotiations. Oreskovich was a restricted free-agent without arbitration rights, so he had no leverage and limited options this summer. Here’s the press release from canucks.nhl.com announcing the deal.

Victor Oreskovich passes the "saw him good" test, though for whatever reason his underlying numbers don’t correlate with what fans seem to see on the ice. He was out-chanced in every playoff series, and his possession stats were lackluster (or worse) in his time with the big club last season. Nonetheless – Oreskovich does some things well, namely he hits hard, and controls the puck well down-low in the opposition zone (in the rare occasion that he finds himself there). 

In 35 combined games (16 regular season games, and 19 playoff appearances) Victor Oreskovich skated to a -5 with three assists and no goals. His zone-start, zone-finish ratio looks good, but his balanced fenwick per game numbers are just brutal – lets just say he finished well under-water in his thirty five appearances. Nonetheless Oreskovich is young and a reasonably solid fourth-line winger at the NHL level. His deal also brings some stability to the Canucks fourth-line, as both he and Maxim Lapierre were key role-players on last years team. 

Though terms of the deal have not been leaked yet (and we’ll update this post when they are) I’d wager that VO will be on a two-way deal with a high base level of compensation in the AHL. He should be considered a "front-runner" to win one of the coveted fourth line wing spots, but he’ll still have to beat out the likes of Nolan, Mancari, Pinozotto, Duco, Bitz and Fedoruk at training camp in order to end up on the opening-day roster.