The Vancouver Canucks have bolstered their prospect system, signing over-age Edmonton Oil Kings captain Ashton Sautner to an entry level contract. Sautner is in the middle of a career season with the Oil Kings and was a big part of their Memorial Cup run last season.

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We know that over-age players don’t usually stand a good chance of ever making an NHL impact, but defensemen are notoriously hard to project. Sautner has been an extremely effective player on a puck possession juggernaut the last couple of seasons to his credit, and is an interesting gamble for GM Jim Benning to make.

Adding Sautner doesn’t cost the Canucks anything but salary, so there’s no reason not to make this gamble if you like Sautner. We’ll have more thoughts on this coming later.

Sautner’s career WHL stats: