News 1130 Sports anchor Rick Dhaliwal is reporting that the Vancouver Canucks have expressed interest in Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Matt Hunwick. The 32 year old defender’s two-year, $2.4 million contract expires on July 1st and it’s expected that he’ll hit the market as an unrestricted free-agent.
In 72 games with the Leafs last season, Hunwick scored just one goal and 19 points, playing mostly on the team’s bottom pairing with Roman Polak, but also spent a fair amount of time playing alongside rookie Nikita Zaitsev. If he elects to sign in Vancouver, he’ll likely play a similar role, as the team’s top four of Chris Tanev, Alex Edler, Ben Hutton and Erik Gudbranson seems to be locked in stone. Beyond that there’s sophomore Troy Stecher, Alex Biega and Jordan Subban on the team’s depth chart. Also, don’t count out former 5th overall draft pick Olli Juolevi to push for a roster spot this fall.
So, what do you think Canucks fans? Is Hunwick a fit for the Canucks? Certainly, he doesn’t make sense long-term, but as a stop gap solution for 2017-18? Or would you rather players like Subban and Juolevi get more of a shot next season?
