The Canucks got Noah Juulsen signed earlier today, but it appears that’s the only pending UFA defenceman that they’ll retain before tomorrow’s free agency period begins.
According to reports from both Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy and Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team , defenceman Kyle Burroughs will hit the open market tomorrow as an unrestricted free agent.
According to Dhaliwal, talks between the two sides fell apart on Friday morning.
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. It wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to know that Burroughs is looking for a one-way deal or a raise in pay come July 1st.
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 on the heels of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout. Evidently, that contract wasn’t quite what Burroughs and his camp were looking for, as the Langley native and lifelong Canucks fan will now almost certainly be heading elsewhere.
Could this information getting out there be a last-ditch effort by Burroughs’ camp to get the Canucks to improve their offer? Plenty of Canucks fans will be hoping that’s the case as Burroughs became a bit of a fan favourite over his two years in Vancouver.
Burroughs joins Ethan Bear and Travis Dermott as Canucks defencemen that will be headed for the open market, as the latter two weren’t extended qualifying offers by the club earlier today.
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