The Vancouver Canucks have dipped their toes in the CHL UFA market today signing overage forward Yan-Pavel Laplante to a three year entry level deal.

Laplante was originally a 2013 3rd round pick of the Arizona Coyotes, but they ultimately decided to not sign him. He re-entered the 2015 NHL entry draft and went unclaimed, thus becoming free agent. 

During his draft season, he was well regarded but was limited to 18 games due to a shoulder injury that he suffered at the Ivan Hlinka tournament before the season even began. He returned to action for those 18 games, where he had 13 points and then posted 5 points in six playoff games. Dan Marr from NHL Central Scouting suggested that Laplante had ‘potential to be a first round candidate’ after the season had he not missed time. He entered the draft as the 51st ranked North American Skater and then was ultimately selected 62nd overall by Arizona.

Following that season, he bounced around the QMJHL, playing for Charlottetown, Victoriaville and finally Gatineau. He also six games of action in the AHL with the Portland Pirates in 2013-14, likely as an audition at the next level. His last moments as part of the Coyotes organization saw him score one goal in 11 playoff games last season. Which likely didn’t help his cause in earning a contract, and thus as mentioned, the Coyotes did not sign him.

After that he returned to Gatineau this season for his overage year, where he saw an uptick in his offensive output. This kind of increase is quite common for overage players, as they are generally much larger and have developed their game enough to be able to take advantage of much smaller and less experienced opposition. Look no further than Dane Fox. 

Scouting reports from his draft year suggest that Laplante is a decent skater and penalty killer who is versatile. Someone who could play a middle six role and contribute in all three zones. He is also regarded for being quite feisty and willing to drop the gloves. All of those things are likely what attracted the Coyotes to use their third round pick. But that was almost three years ago now.

Laplante is now 21 years old and hopes to make an impression as a professional. He isn’t particularly big at 6’0″ and 185 lbs, so he may run into issues when competing against professional men. But time will tell if that compete level and feistiness can help him at the next level.

When looking at the pGPS for Laplante, it does not look favourable with 3.45% of his counterparts going onto becoming NHL regulars. This isn’t surprising given that most players of his age would already be playing professional hockey and he didn’t exactly take the QMJHL by storm posting just over 1.0 PPG.

Obviously Canucks management sees something in Laplante that deems worthy of a contract. Ideally he can develop into a fourth line player who can skate and help with the penalty kill while being a physical player. We have always been a proponent of signing free agent prospects, as you can never have enough dice rolls and Laplante is exactly that, a dice roll. 

There  just may have been better options available.