As expected after the Vancouver Canucks traded away Nick Bonino, Adam Clendening and a second round pick to acquire Brandon Sutter and a third round pick, the Canucks have given Sutter a contract extension.
The deal is worth $21.875 ($4.375 AAV) over the course of five years. (Kudos to the Canucks for announcing the terms themselves instead of leaking it to be released five minutes after the announcement.)
Last season Sutter posted 21 goals and 12 assists through 80 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins. That was his first 20-goal season since the 2009-10 season.
#Canucks sign Brandon Sutter to 5-year contract extension; average annual value of $4.375M. http://t.co/7SlKh5SqQS pic.twitter.com/8f8YsjHGE7
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) August 4, 2015
That’s a big pay day for Sutter, who ranks 339th over the last three season in P/60 among forwards who played at least 700 minutes. That is out of a total of 436 eligible players. That’s certainly impacted by his zone starts, which over that three-year period are -10.29% relative for a total of 43.33% offensive zone starts.
However, he still doesn’t stack up that favorably in this group of 436 forwards. He further ranks 419th in score-adjusted CF%Rel at -6.75%, 355th in score-adjusted CF% at 46.01%, 274th in score-adjusted CF60 at 46.31, 304th in score-adjusted CA60 at 54.33 (despite his defensive game being highly lauded), and 402nd in HSCF60 (on-ice high danger scoring chances per 60 minutes of even strength play) at 11.53, coming in around Steve Ott, Taylor Pyatt, Cody McLeod, Matt Hendricks, Torrey Mitchell, Tom Sestito and Paul Gaustad.
That’s big pay for a player who can be a solid third line guy. It’s the kind of money you expect for someone much higher up the lineup, who needs to produce a lot better than his recent numbers show. Barring a big Radim Vrbata extension next summer, Sutter will be the fourth highest paid forward on the team.
Sportsnet also notes that his $4.375 AAV is the highest of any player in the NHL who has never posted 40 points in their career.
#Canucks sign Brandon Sutter. His $4.375M cap hit in 2016-17 is the highest of any NHL forward to have never tallied over 40 PTS in a season
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) August 4, 2015
The contract will start in the 2016-17 season.
