An excerpt from TSN:
After the high-profile depatures of Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, the Vancouver Canucks have finally added a name to their roster. The Canucks have signed free agent forward Pavol Demitra to a two-year, $8 million contract.
“Throughout his NHL career, Pavol has proven himself to be an offensive contributor where ever he has played,” said Canucks GM Mike Gillis. “Pavol is a strong two-way hockey player with excellent quickness and finish. His play making abilities will be an asset on our power-play and make him a great addition to our top six forwards.”
Demitra, 33, joins the Canucks from the Minnesota Wild, were in 2007-08 he recorded 54 points (15-39-54) and 24 penalty minutes in 68 games. During his 14 year NHL career with the Wild, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and Ottawa Senators, Demitra has played 750 regular season games, scoring 281 goals while adding 418 assists for 699 points (281-418-699) and 264 penalty minutes.
Habster:
Some hockey pundits say Pavol Demitra has loss a step and is nothing more than a perimeter type player who rarely ventures to the middle of the ice.
To Demitra’s defense, he had a groin injury last season which caused him to miss 13 games and probably continued to hamper him the rest of the season. I agree that he is more of a perimeter player but there is no denying Demitra has top end skills and has averaged almost a point per game pace throughout his career (0.932 point per game to be exact).
Some might argue $4 million per season is too much money for a player like Demitra but what do the Canucks/Gillis have to lose. They have tons of cap space to use and still have a shade over $10 million to spent if ownership wants to spend to the cap limit for The Big Swede!!!!