The Vancouver Canucks, hard up against the salary cap ceiling, have added a depth winger on a relatively cheap deal.
The NHL team agreed to terms with free agent Jayce Hawryluk on Monday morning on a one-year, two-way contract.
He’ll carry a $800,000 cap hit when he’s in the NHL. His minor league salary will be $200,000.
A plucky bottom-six winger — he’s also comfortable playing centre — who brings energy and showed a scoring touch in junior, the 24 year old split the 2019-20 season between the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators organizations, skating in 26 NHL games. He scored three goals and added seven assists for the two Eastern Conference squads.
He also played six games for Florida’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
This isn’t the first time Canucks general manager Jim Benning has had his eye on Hawryluk: he tried to trade up at the 2015 draft to nab him, but the Panthers took him 32nd overall. Benning ended up taking Thatcher Demko four picks later.
“I’m looking forward to a fresh start,” Hawryluk told reporters on a Zoom call Monday afternoon. He didn’t play much in Florida in 2019-20 before eventually being waived days before the trade deadline. The Ottawa Senators scooped him up.
“Obviously it wasn’t the right fit and the coach didn’t see me consistently in the lineup there,” he said of playing for Joel Quenneville in Florida.
He has a reputation as a hustling, hard-working forward who has a touch of skill and definitely plays bigger than his 5-foot-11 frame.
“I’m just out there to compete with all I’ve got,” he said. “Yo u’re not going to score goals if you’re not winning picks on the wall.”
“He’s tenacious on the puck, he competes hard, he’s got courage,” Benning said Monday morning about his newest free agent signing.
Benning said that he’d talked with former Panthers general manager Dale Tallon a few times about possibly nabbing Hawryluk away from Florida, but they never figured a deal out.
The Senators weren’t the only team to put in waiver claim on Hawryluk but the were lowest in the standings, giving them priority on the claim.
“He’s a young player. He’s being given a new start with a new team. He’s a depth guy but we’ve got hopes for him,” Benning said.
After the NHL season was paused in mid-March, Hawryluk would reveal that he was one of five Senators who tested positive for COVID-19. It’s believed he and his teammates picked up the novel coronavirus in Los Angeles during the latter stages of a road trip that saw them fly home to Ottawa as the season went on pause.
He suffered relatively mild symptoms, certainly nothing close to the worst cases that everyone has heard about, but the experience still gives him pause.
“Wh en I came in contact with it, it was a scary feeling, there was a lot of unknown with it,” he said. “I didn’t go to the hospital but it’s still scary. You see all the numbers. … You’ve got to take this seriously.”
He paid tribute to the hard work that healthcare workers have been putting in and echoed the calls for everyone to follow the social-distancing directives from public health officials.
“I think people are taking the right precautions,” he said. “Definitely something I was terrified and scared about.”
After the Senators didn’t make a qualifying offer of $832,500, Hawryluk hit unrestricted free agency and the Canucks were one of several teams that Davidson knew would be interested.
“I think Jayce is happy and relieved,” Hawryluk’s agent Jason Davidson said Monday about his signing with the Canucks.. “Jim and I have talked about him on a couple different occasions.”
T he Senators have a surge of young players coming into the lineup, opening up the opportunity to find a new team, Davidson said. The Senators made an offer to bring him back but in the end Hawryluk liked the opportunity in Vancouver better.
“I knew what they thought of him in his draft year,” he added, explaining why he called Benning up once the free agency window opened on Oct. 9. “I think Travis Green is going to like Jayce’ style. I n his draft year he was over a point per game. In his 19 year old season, he was three goals shy of 50. There’s always been that skill. And even in junior at 16 he wreaked havoc on defencemen. He’s hard on pucks. His motor is always running, that’s likely what appealed to the scouts in his draft year.”
“The tempo he plays at, it don’t matter what the score is. … He plays bigger than what he measures out at,” he said. “He’s got a heart of a lion. I think Vancouver Canuck fans are really going to enjoy watching Jayce play.”
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