The San Jose Sharks have signed former Vancouver Canucks defenceman Kyle Burroughs to a three-year deal at an annual cap hit of $1.1 million, according to multiple reports.
Yesterday, both Dan Murphy of Sportsnet and Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team reported that talks between the Canucks and Burroughs’ camp broke down on Friday, and that the 27-year-old defenceman would be heading to the open market.
Burroughs is coming off a two-year two-way deal with an annual NHL salary of $750,000. During that time, Burroughs appeared in 90 NHL games and exactly zero AHL games. Burroughs earned a reputation as one of the Canucks’ more hard-nosed players, and never shied away from sticking up for his teammates by dropping the gloves when it was necessary. Burroughs never complained about his role as the Canucks’ 7th defenceman and was always ready whenever he was called upon.
After a long period of reported radio silence between the two sides, the Canucks reportedly offered Burroughs a contract offer last week following news of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout. Burroughs loved playing in Vancouver, so it’s safe to assume the Canucks’ offer wasn’t quite as valuable as the one Burroughs got from San Jose.
Burroughs is the third former Canucks defenceman to sign a contract in free agency today, as Luke Schenn agreed to terms with the Nashville Predators on a three-year contract and Oliver Ekman-Larsson signed for one year with the Florida Panthers.
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