Canucks give Brandon Sutter 5-year, $21.875M extension week after trade

Not long after he had acquired Brandon Sutter via trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins last week, Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning was already talking extension with the 26-year old center. 

On Tuesday that extension became a reality as the two sides hammered out a five-year, $21.875 million deal. That’s a cap hit of $4.35 million, leaving the Canucks with just over $1 million heading into the season. Sutter also gets a full no-trade from the 2016-17 season to 2018-19. It then becomes a modified NTC in 2019-20 and 2020-21, where he can submit a list of 15 teams he would refuse a trade to, per General Fanager.

Whatever you think of Sutter’s game, this is market value for top-end third-line centers, especially when you’re buying up prime years. Benning was already talking up his game the day of the trade calling Sutter a “foundation piece.” 

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Sutter scored 45 goals and recorded 78 points in three seasons with the Penguins. He never could live up the shutdown monster role that he assumed after being dealt for Jordan Staal at the 2012 NHL Draft. His offensive numbers were fine, but the possession stats weren’t, and his linemates did not benefit from his presence on the ice. 

If you want to dig deeper into the numbers, like Rhys Jessop did over at Canucks Army, moving from Nick Bonino to Brandon Sutter is a downgrade of a move, on the ice and in terms of talking future salary cap flexibility. 

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