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The Boston Bruins lost a career-long member of the organization on July 1 when Jake DeBrusk signed with the Vancouver Canucks as an unrestricted free agent.
Two days after he decided to relocate from Massachusetts to British Columbia, DeBrusk shared a message with Bruins fans on his social networks biding a farewell to them and the Boston hockey club.
“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Thank you to all of the people that I got to meet and had the pleasure of getting to know throughout my last 7 years in the black and gold. There will always be a place in my heart for Boston and that’s because of my teammates that I went to battle with and the fans who were with me from the start! In saying all that I am extremely excited to start this new chapter in my career and to be in Vancouver and to put on that Canucks jersey! #itsshowtime #cheers,” DeBrusk wrote on his Instagram account on July 3.
The Bruins drafted DeBrusk with the No. 14 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft. After waiting a couple of years to make his debut, DeBrusk appeared in 465 games for the Bruins scoring 138 goals and assisting 128 for 266 total points.
DeBrusk signed with the Canucks on July 1 after completing a contract with the Bruins and entering the open market as an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2024-25 season.
The forward is coming off scoring 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 total points in 2024 appearing in 80 regular-season games. He also played 13 postseason games scoring 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists).
Did the Canucks Whiff on Free Agency?
It’s fair to say Jake DeBrusk was not the best player entering free agency on July 1.
With the likes of Jake Guentzel, Steven Stamkos, and Elias Lindholm as forwards hitting the open market, DeBrusk was considered a “Plan B” option for most organizations in case they whiffed on landing the top-tier targets.
That, however, wasn’t the case for the Canucks. According to Thomas Drance of The Athletic, Vancouver targeted DeBrusk from the get-go and had him as the No. 1 target to sign in free agency knowing landing Guentzel would be a tall task.
“The Canucks never attempted to trade for Jake Guentzel’s signing rights,” Drance wrote. “All along they preferred the younger, more affordable option of Jake DeBrusk to punch up their top-six forward group.
“Obviously the Canucks kept a tight lid on information surrounding their intentions in free agency, to the point of breaking nearly all of their own signings themselves, but multiple team sources indicated to The Athletic once the dust settled on Monday that one of the reasons Vancouver didn’t try to trade for Guentzel’s rights is that DeBrusk was their primary top-six forward target all along.”
DeBrusk signed a seven-year, $38.5 million contract with the Canucks on July 1 with an annual cap hit of $5.5 million. DeBrusk’s contract will get him through the 2030-31 season when he will enter unrestricted free agency for the second time in his career.
Bruins Land Elias Lindholm from Vancouver
Although Boston lost DeBrusk, Bruins’ fans must be ecstatic about how the franchise filled that gap.
The Bruins signed the largest deal of the 2024 offseason by inking former Canucks center Elias Lindholm to a massive $54.2 million contract over the next seven seasons with an annual average value of $7.75 million per year.
Lindholm’s contract with Boston is also the second-largest contrast in AAV, only topped by new Nashville Predators forward Steven Stamkos’ $8 million AAV.
Not only did Boston snatch Lindholm from Vancouver, but the Bruins were also able to sign defenseman Nikita Zadorov from the Canucks, completing the Canadian sweep on day one of free agency.
The Bruins inked Zadorov to another huge contract. The blueliner inked a six-year, $30 million deal with a cap hit of $5 million per season.
Zadorov, who has been compared to Bruins’ legendary defenseman Zdeno Chara, quickly warned his new fans about how he wants them to respect the only man who should be known as “Big Z.”
“I’m not even close to (Chara‘s level) and I want to start with, like, in my past teams, people were calling me ‘Big Z’,” Zadorov said in a Zoom call on July 2. “Please do not ever call me ‘Big Z’ now.”
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