Confirmed with Link: Canucks sign D Tucker Poolman to 4-Year, $10M Deal ($2.5M AAV)

[Hit the post]

At first glance, term and AAV seem high. But $2.5m is hardly an albatross, especially when the cap starts going up again.

Did need depth, and he's young enough that his play shouldn't fall off too much. Should be okay as a bottom 4 guy. How is he on the PK? Deal is bit more palatable if he is going to play a key role as a penalty killer.

OEL is an upgrade over aging Edler. But Hamonic + The Poolman in no way is more effective than Schmidt. At best, we've stayed about the same (which isn't good news as the blueline sucked this past season as a whole).

 

[ugghhh]

OEL is an upgrade over aging Edler. But Hamonic + The Poolman in no way is more effective than Schmidt. At best, we've stayed about the same (which isn't good news as the blueline sucked this past season as a whole).

Gotta hope for Hughes to have a big bounce back year and Rathbone to play well.

Not looking great so far.

 

[Jetsfan79]

Jets fan here. Its very rare we roasted Poolman for boneheaded plays. Doesn't offer too much creativity in his game but he's a solid, steady 3rd pairing guy who can fill in on the top 4... Probably paid a million too much (and a year too much) but that's expected due to the inflation that comes with Free Agency

 

[kanuck87]

Wow, committing 4 years to a 3rd pairing defenseman is as dumb as it gets. You're suppose to be using these spots for cheap ELC/arb defensemen, or short-term cheap vets. This is absolutely terrible.

 

[ziploc]

I love acquiring multiple players who are best described by their former teams as "best played in sheltered role"

We have 6 guys who need to be played in sheltered roles in one way or another right now.

They can just all shelter each other?

 

[Ita]

Wow, committing 4 years to a 3rd pairing defenseman is as dumb as it gets. You're suppose to be using these spots for cheap ELC/arb defensemen, or short-term cheap vets. This is absolutely terrible.

This is the same man who signed 4th liners for 4x3M. History repeats itself and it just shows that Benning never learns from a mistake.

What a clown.

 

[innitfam]

4 years seems like a bit much. Not a huge fan of the signing. He should be alright though in a bottom pairing role.

 

[JanBulisPiggyBack]

I know nothing of this player but if a time comes when we no longer need him his contract isn’t an albatross to move, this is Stetcher level

if this is the worst move Benning has made this off season, or at least in free agency I think we consider ourselves lucky

 

[kanuck87]

They could just have given Edler 1 year for $3.5 million instead. Better defenseman for only $1 million AAV more and 3 fewer years. WTF?

 

[GetFocht]

agreed on that front, I'm ok with this being labelled as Benning's worst move if Poolman flounders. 2.5 million cap hit is nothing for a 28 year old 6'4 RH defenceman . He could end up being a candidate that outperforms his contract given he is in his prime years. You would also think Brad Shaw wanted him as well as he will be molding the defence.

 

[Gordievsky]

The salary cap should have a handicap system like golf for GMs with a crappy history like Benning. It would level the playing field.
Regular cap = $80 mil.
Benning cap = $95 mil.
Chiarelli cap = $110 mil.
Milbury cap = $125 mil.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

They could just have given Edler 1 year for $3.5 million instead. Better defenseman for only $1 million AAV more and 3 fewer years. WTF?

According to Rick
Edler doesn’t want to stay

 

[GetFocht]

They could just have given Edler 1 year for $3.5 million instead. Better defenseman for only $1 million AAV more and 3 fewer years. WTF?

you realize that Canucks needed RH defenceman right? Also what makes you think Edler will accept a bottom pairing role after being the #1 for the past decade.

 

[bossram]

Another day, another overpayment (in dollars and term) to a marginal player from Benning. Water is wet. What else is new.

 

[supercanuck]

Benning makes annual free agency head-scratcher, signing Tucker Poolman to four-year, $10 million deal

Most common partner was Morrissey last season. Maybe him and OEL in a similar role but hoping for improvements from both guys in a top 4 role

 

[bossram]

Benning makes annual free agency head-scratcher, signing Tucker Poolman to four-year, $10 million deal

Most common partner was Morrissey last season. Maybe him and OEL in a similar role but hoping for improvements from both guys in a top 4 role

Let's take two guys that were abysmal in top-four roles last season and put them together in the top-four....

It's just so crazy it might work!

 

[Nucker101]

Just read these comments from Jets fans when it was announced

Trade, FA, Rumour Thread

Ahahaha!

Good for Poolman, he seems like a good dude.
I could not be happier that we didn't sign him to that though. Yikes.

His play in the defensive zone is a little lacking and he doesn't have the best footspeed to chase pucks. He's pretty good along the boards but will more often than not just try flipping the puck out rather than look to make a pass. His gap play is fine most of the time but when he makes a mistake in transition it'll be glaring.
He's not physical at all and often loses positioning to smaller players in front of the net.
In the offensive zone he was good at getting pucks through to the net but hasn't really had much opportunity for offensive zone time with how bad the rest of our defensive play has been in the past 2 seasons. Don't expect much offense from him though.

Holy crap the term and AAV for Forbort and Poolman….why?

Happy for Poolman but that is an outrageous deal

Well good for Poolman but he's not worth that at all.

Absolutely brutal contract for a bottom-pairing guy. Congrats Tucker, you owe Maurice dinner for his faith in you.

I hate to slag a guy but he is pretty awful. He showed some offensive flare 2 years ago but he was not good at all last year, defensively or offensively. Having said that he did have Covid to start the season so maybe that had an effect on him?

He’s alright on the third pairing, but he struggled when dummy Maurice played him on the top pair. $2.5 million is too much for him, but it could be worse.

He made Josh Morrissey look like a chump a lot of the time. SOMETIMES he's ok on the 3rd pairing. Sometimes.

 

[maroon 6]

Just read these comments from Jets fans when it was announced

Trade, FA, Rumour Thread

Jets fans were talking shit about Schmidt too, until of course he was traded there.

 

[Nucker101]

Jets fans were talking shit about Schmidt, until of course he was traded there.

the difference here is that Schmidt never played for them so it's not like they've watched him play much, and you can find Poolman complaints if you go back to during the season as well.

And read some of those comments, a couple of them are level-headed takes and even those ones suggest that he's nothing more than a limited bottom pairing defender

 

[Pavel96]

Another contract that is basically guaranteed to end in a buyout before the ink is even dry.

Benning is assembling his next core (group of players he'll have to pay other teams to take)

 

[JanBulisPiggyBack]

I don’t why I feel the need to defend Poolman but I think you have to just wait and see, you are hoping for something steady with your pairings and he sounds like he is gonna be steady
It’s better than Gudbranson/Sbisa at 4 million.

 

[bossram]

I don’t why I feel the need to defend Poolman but I think you have to just wait and see, you are hoping for something steady with your pairings and he sounds like he is gonna be steady
It’s better than Gudbranson/Sbisa at 4 million.

We've heard the "wait and see" argument for like 7 years man.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

the difference here is that Schmidt never played for them so it's not like they've watched him play much, and you can find Poolman complaints if you go back to during the season as well.

And read some of those comments, a couple of them are level-headed takes and even those ones suggest that he's nothing more than a limited bottom pairing defender

It looks like the sort of reactions this forum had when Vegas selected Sbisa.

I got to watch Poolman the past 2 playoffs. The guy was a turnover machine in the defensive zone. Like, there was a sequence in Game 3 vs the Habs were he wasn't even under pressure and connected a tape to tape pass to Gallagher.

 

[Nucker101]

It looks like the sort of reactions this forum had when Vegas selected Sbisa.

I don't think he's that bad, but yeah, clearly he's nothing more than an average bottom pairing dman

 

[Red]

I'm ok with everything else we did today but I just can't understand this deal. This is a 1.5m player and we gave him nearly double. Why?