After signing Paul Cotter, Luke Schenn, Akil Thomas, and Trey Fix-Wolansky on opening day of free agency, Vancouver Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson was not done there.

Johnson announced that the organization has signed defenceman Jamie Oleksiak to a two-year, $5 million AAV contract.

According to PuckPedia, Oleksiak’s contract comes with a 12-team no-trade list for both years of the deal.

Oleksiak, 33, is a 6’7″, 252-lb left-shot defenceman. He was selected in the first round (14th overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft by the Dallas Stars. The towering defenceman spent the first six years of his NHL career in and out of the Stars lineup, having played no more than 41 games in any of those seasons.

The Toronto, Ontario, native was then shipped to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a brief stint before getting traded back to Dallas just over a year later. Oleksiak then signed a five-year, $4.6 million AAV contract with the Seattle Kraken in their first year of existence.

With the Kraken, Oleksiak played 389 of a possible 410 over his five seasons, scoring 21 goals and 68 assists for 89 points. In his first three seasons in Seattle, Oleksiak hovered between 19-20 minutes of ice time per game, but saw his minutes decline to below 17 last season.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Canucks traded left-shot defenceman Marcus Pettersson to the New York Rangers. Oleksiak will fill Pettersson’s role as a stay-at-home defensive defenceman on the left side. It appears the Canucks have their blueline sorted for next season now with Oleksiak joining Filip Hronek, Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, Elias Pettersson, Luke Schenn and Victor Mancini as the seven defencemen likely to rotate throughout the year.

Here is what GM Ryan Johnson had to say regarding the signing:

“Jamie is a big body who moves very well on the ice,” said Johnson. “He’s a solid two-way defenceman who isn’t afraid to use his size and strength to his advantage, and we like his reach and athleticism. He competes very hard and has grown into a good leader in the dressing room. Adding him to the mix on the backend will help us in many positive ways.”

Funny note: the featured image is of Oleksiak fighting Schenn in January of 2023. Fast forward to present day, and the two are now teammates.