The noise ended up becoming deafening. After a Rick Dhaliwal tweet seemingly out of nowhere, Daniel Sprong was inked to a one-year, 975k deal to bring him to Vancouver. It’s a tidy piece of business that further adds to the lineup, with some interesting wrinkles now in play. Where does Sprong fit? How will Rick Tocchet use him? Can he mesh with the team’s identity and play the Canucks’ style?

All the questions and what-ifs aside, though – signing Sprong to this deal represents excellent value for the Vancouver Canucks. It’s a low-cap hit for a player who’s put up proven production at the NHL level with not a lot of usage. According to just the production that the Dutchman was putting up, Sprong was projected to make anywhere between $3 million and $4 million by some contract prediction models.

Obviously, he isn’t making nearly that much, and for good reason. Sprong went unsigned through the first three weeks of free agency because he couldn’t be trusted to play against opposing top sixes, with a penchant for floating around defensively. It didn’t help his case that he only scored once in the last 17 games of the season with the Detroit Red Wings, leading to some healthy scratches as the Wings chased a playoff spot. We’ve touched on this in a previous piece, too, and it provides a glimpse as to why Sprong didn’t ink that big contract that his points suggested.

But, for a player who’s put up over 40 points per game in a fourth-line role in the last two seasons, 975k is a bargain for the depth scoring that he brings. Sprong’s willingness to shoot is certainly a trait that isn’t easily found within the Canucks’ bottom six, and chances are that his production will be a welcome boost when he draws into the lineup. Over the last two years, Sprong’s 5v5 production average of 1.26 goals per 60 minutes ranked him as the 11th-best NHLer, beyond the likes of Mikko Rantanen and Connor McDavid.

There’s a very good chance that Sprong is already at or near his peak as an NHLer. As an individual player at his age and having bounced around the league, it’s very likely that the winger is what he is at this stage. However, that doesn’t mean that the Canucks are out of luck in seeing if they can get more value out of this player in their systems. Sprong wouldn’t be the first success story under this new regime – already, Vancouver has seen a resurgence from Brock Boeser and a breakout year from Dakota Joshua under Tocchet’s culture.

Granted, Sprong’s style of play looks like a nightmare on paper for the 2023-24 Jack Adams winner. He’s a shoot-happy winger who isn’t the most defensively responsible. Vancouver already got rid of a player in that mold called Andrei Kuzmenko just the previous season, and the Russian probably sported a lot more high-end talent than Sprong.

But that’s where the contract value becomes so key – if Sprong doesn’t fit, he’s easily parted with. A 975K cap hit means pretty much nothing. The Dutchman can be sent down to the minors without much issue, and any trade to move him probably won’t involve giving up much as sweeteners to take on a player who is making just above league minimum. And, if Sprong hits, he represents excellent contract efficiency if his production remains anywhere near where it has been in the last two seasons. Remember, with the Red Wings, Sprong was commanding a $2 million cap hit. If he scores another 40 points for Vancouver, he’s more than halving the dollar-per-point ratio that he had in Detroit.

With the Canucks wanting to find offensive contributors in their top nine, Sprong represents a cheap option that has produced points previously and could fit even better, with Tocchet and his systems working some magic. If he doesn’t work out, the low cost and term of the contract allow management plenty of flexibility to address the issue, from reassignment to trades to scratching, without much impact on the team’s cap picture. It’s hard to hate the signing because, realistically, there isn’t much of a scenario where things could go disastrously wrong. And, to get a two-time 40-point scorer for under a million AAV for a year? That’s pretty good bang for the buck.