Photo Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

That contract negotiations between the Vancouver Canucks and Chris Tanev were moving in a positive direction, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday, would seem to have been an understatement.

On Tuesday morning, the Canucks announced that they’ve signed the 25-year-old defensive ace to a five-year contract extension worth a reported 22.25 million (for an annual average value of $4.45 million). That’s pretty close to what we expected, and a solid deal for both sides.

Read on past the jump.

“Chris has developed into an excellent NHL defenceman and is an extremely important part of our team,” said Vancouver Canucks General Manager Jim Benning in a team release. “He’s a player you want on the ice in the most critical points of a game and we’re excited about having him with our group as we continue to play to win today, with an eye to the future.”

Benning would later confirm during his media availability that Tanev’s new deal comes with limited no-trade protection, though I’d imagine it will only kick in for the third year of the deal based on article 11.8(a) of the 2013 NHL/NHLPA collective bargaining agreement. 

Tanev has played first-pairing minutes for the Canucks this season while paired mostly with Alex Edler and has been a crucial part of an elite penalty kill. Over the past couple of years he’s proven that he can handle top of the roster defensive responsibility, and while he remains something of a black hole offensively, his defensive impact is mammoth.

Among top pairing defenders this season, Tanev has had easily the biggest impact on his club’s relative unblocked shot differential at 5-on-5. He’s had a similarly elite impact at 4-on-5. You could pretty easily make the argument that he’s been the best defensive defender in hockey this season. 

That two-way skill easily outweighs Tanev’s lack of production.

As for the contract itself, the deal buys out two of Tanev’s remaining restricted years and three unrestricted years and is similar in structure. It’s the latter part that apparently took some massaging, according to Tanev’s agent Wade Arnott of Newport Sports Group.

“The battle was the (unrestricted) years,” Arnott told News 1130 Sports. “It’s why it took so long.”

Friedman reports that Tanev will be paid $3.5 million for each of his next two restricted seasons, while his unrestricted seasons have been valued at an average of $5.083 million. So Tanev left some money on the table up front – relative to the contracts that T.J. Brodie and Marco Scandella recently signed – but will be paid more for his unrestricted seasons. 

Considering the bloated market prices for defenseman on the free agent market in recent years, this deal represents solid value for the Canucks. The club has now locked down a young defender who has proven to be an elite two-way player at even-strength and a super elite penalty killer, and they’ve managed to keep his overall cap hit down rather significantly by using his cheaper restricted seasons to their benefit. 

Meanwhile Tanev gets paid what he’s worth, and has some security going into what promises to be a physical run down the stretch and into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Not bad for an undrafted player and a former RIT Tiger.