The advent of the one-week free agency window has taken much of the surprise out of NHL Free Agent Frenzy. Sure, we all know teams were discussing contracts with free agents before the official start of free agency anyway, but now that they’re actually allowed to do that, there are hardly any moves that aren’t reported well before 9 a.m. PST on July 1st.
So no one who’s been paying any attention the last few days should be surprised the Canucks have signed defenceman Michael Del Zotto. The one major difference now is that we have confirmation on value and term: 2 years, $3 million per.
Jackson touched on Del Zotto as an option in one of his many free agency previews:
Del Zotto’s never been a consistent player, but that doesn’t mean he’s without value. Del Zotto can easily provide a bit of offense from the back end, something the Canucks were sorely lacking last year. Vancouver has a slot to fill on the left-hand side with Luca Sbisa departing to Las Vegas, and while Del Zotto is a quite an adventure in his own zone, what he brings to the table offensively would be a major upgrade.
Del Zotto has run into some injury trouble of late, and his point totals have decreased significantly. Still, the six goals he scored last year would have been tied for the team lead among Canucks defencemen, and he’s just two seasons removed from a 10-goal campaign, a total he’s hit twice in his career. It’s interesting to see the Canucks roll the dice on an offensive defenceman whose defensive play is so inconsistent that he’s known as Michael DelZaster in some circles. Certainly a turnaround from the safety-first approach that this regime has been known for valuing.
Merely plugging in Del Zotto into Sbisa’s spot is an improvement regarding net goal differential. The fact that they’ve done this while shedding $600,000 in salary is gravy. We’ll have a deeper dive into Del Zotto in the days ahead.