Canucks add Samuelsson and Glass, but lose Krog and Jaffray

The Canucks made a couple more moves in free agency over the past few days, and they look pretty good from this corner. The big addition [Nucks Misconduct] is Mikael Samuelsson, who was a key part of Detroit’s Stanley Cup victory two years ago and their run to the final this year. Samuelsson put up 19 goals and 40 points in 81 regular-season games last season despite playing primarily a checking role for Detroit.

Samuelsson is a natural right-winger, which the Canucks are short on, and he’s 6′2” and 213 pounds, so he’ll bring some size as well. He’s quite good on the defensive end; Behind the Net has him with a 2.04 goals against/60 minutes played rating, which is pretty impressive for a checking-line winger who often had to go up against other top lines. He only recorded a goals for/60 of 2.28, but part of that’s thanks to the talent he was surrounded with. In Vancouver, it looks like he’ll start with the Sedins on the power play and probably play on the second line regularly, so he should put up some impressive numbers. Moreover, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock had high praise for him during the playoffs, and Babcock’s a pretty good judge of talent.

The other nice thing with the Samuelsson addition is that he wasn’t overly expensive. NHL Numbers has him with a cap hit of 2.5 million for the next three seasons, not bad when you consider Samuelsson’s two-way ability. Obviously, he gets a little bump in price for the Cup ring, but this still is a pretty good deal in my mind; he’s only 32, and he should be able to play at a high level until at least age 35, barring injuries. When you consider that his offensive stats are pretty similar to what $8.6 million man Mats Sundin brought last year (nine goals and 19 assists in 41 games) and his defence is much better, this looks like a steal.

The Canucks also picked up forward Tanner Glass from Florida, signing him to a $500,000 two-way deal [Richard Loat, Canucks Hockey Blog. Glass is a 25-year old forward with limited NHL experience [Hockey DB and not much of a scorer, but he could be a valuable checker. He'll probably start the season in Manitoba, and he could turn into a decent depth prospect.

Unfortunately, the team lost two of the free agents [Kirk Penton, The Winnipeg Sun] I would have liked to see resigned, Jason Krog and Jason Jaffray. Krog, who tore up the AHL with the Manitoba Moose(30 goals and 56 assists in 74 games last year) but never got much of a shot with the Canucks, signed a deal for $550,000 with the Atlanta Thrashers. Money clearly wasn’t the issue, as that’s less than what he made with Manitoba last year, so he probably decided he had a better shot at the NHL with Atlanta. He’s 33, so his clock certainly is ticking. That’s too bad, though, as I felt he could have been a valuable player for the Canucks.

Jaffray is perhaps a bigger loss, though. He recorded 23 goals and 26 assists in 56 games with the Moose last year and added nine goals and 10 assists in 22 AHL playoff games. He’s also a few years younger than Krog at 28. He hasn’t been able to produce much at the NHL level in his various call-ups, but he’s been an okay fourth-line player and displayed considerable flashes of offensive talent. With both him and Krog gone, the Canucks don’t have a lot of offensive depth down on the farm. Let’s hope they address that this summer.

Tags: Detroit Red Wings, forwards, Jason Jaffray, Jason Krog, Manitoba Moose, Mikael Samuelssson, Mike Babcock, Tanner Glass