Vancouver Canucks signing winger Daniel Sprong to one-year deal: reports
Just when the hockey world thought that the Vancouver Canucks were done adding to the forward corps, they surprised us all. Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin was busy on July 1st. He added forwards Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, Kiefer Sherwood, Nate Smith, defencemen Derek Forbort, Vincent Desharnais, and goaltender Jiri Patera. But on July 20th, they proved they weren’t done yet.
On Friday afternoon, Chek TV’s Rick Dhaliwal hinted on X that Daniel Sprong was still a free agent and that the Canucks had an interest in the winger. And on Saturday morning, the Province’s Patrick Johnston confirmed that it was a done deal, the Canucks have signed forward Daniel Sprong.
Sprong, 27, can be categorized as a depth scorer. Despite predominantly playing in a bottom-six role, Sprong manages to light the lamp. Last season with the Detroit Red Wings, Sprong scored 18 goals and 43 points with a minus-five rating in 76 games. Sprong is just one season removed from his career year. Playing his second year with the Seattle Kraken, he scored 21 goals and 46 points with a plus-16 rating in 66 games. Sprong’s efforts that season earned him some powerplay two time with the Kraken.
to a one-year deal worth $975k and will now fill out the Canucks depth forwards. Sprong will bring a great shot while playing a defensive sound game. Over the past two seasons, Sprong has added penalty killing to his arsenal, which makes him the prototypical player that this coaching staff and management coveted on the free agent market this summer.
Once Nils Höglander graduated out of his fourth-line role and on a line with Elias Pettersson, Vancouver lacked that depth scoring. Höglander scored 24 goals last year, all coming at even strength. With this move, Allvin and company are hoping Sprong can help fill that void.
We here at Canucks Army wrote a piece yesterday about Daniel Sprong and if the Canucks should sign him. Check out our thoughts on it here.
