Throughout the previous season, Jake DeBrusk never wavered in his belief that a deal would be reached to keep him with the Boston Bruins indefinitely.
DeBrusk, who the Bruins drafted 14th overall in 2015, entered the free agency market for the first time after the two sides were unable to reach a contract agreement. And on Monday, it brought him to the Vancouver Canucks.
On the first day of free agency, DeBrusk signed a seven-year contract worth $5.5 million a year and talked about how his free agency experience led him to sign with the Canucks instead of the Bruins.
According to team-provided video, DeBrusk told reporters, “It’s been a crazy process, obviously, free agency and going through it for the first time.” However, they were extremely combative in their statement and made it clear that they were in Vancouver. I was aware that I felt incredibly positively about them. Things seemed to be heading in the right direction as we conversed and discussed other related topics.
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It’s funny because I felt like I had a fairly normal day when I woke up early today, but I’ve been overwhelmed the entire day since I kind of received confirmation that I was coming here. I can’t wait to get to the city and get started because it’s been such an exciting experience. My feeling of being a Vancouver Canuck is one of great luck and honor.
DeBrusk played 465 regular-season games for the Bruins during the first seven seasons of his NHL career, during which he scored 138 goals and added 128 assists for 266 points. Following the news of the signing, he disclosed that he had received congratulations from a few of his former Bruins teammates on DeBrusk’s new chapter.
“My phone has been ringing nonstop, but they’re happy for me, at least the guys in Boston are happy,” DeBrusk remarked. “They’re just really excited for me, but I have a lot of good friends over there and guys I’ve played with for a long time who understood something like this was probably going to happen.”
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There are other players traveling from Boston to Vancouver besides DeBrusk. In order to continue playing alongside DeBrusk, Danton Heinen and Derek Forbort also signed free-agent contracts with the Vancouver Canucks. On Monday, the Bruins signed Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm, two former Canucks players.
Don Sweeney, general manager of the Boston Bruins, stated last week that DeBrusk and Boston hadn’t had any “productive talks in quite some time,” but he didn’t appear to harbor any resentment toward DeBrusk given the outcome of the negotiations.
According to NESN, Sweeney told reporters, “I wish Jake well.” Was a tremendous Bruin, obviously. Fantastic opportunity for him and Danton and Derek in Vancouver. Someone tweeted, “Maybe it would have been easier if we had just made a trade.”
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