On Tuesday afternoon, the Vancouver Canucks introduced that that they had signed defenceman Derek Forbort to a one-year extension price $2 million common annual worth (AAV). He would have been an unrestricted free agent (UFA) on July 1 and was coming off a one-year deal price $1.5 million (AAV).
In his first season with the Canucks, Forbort had two targets and 11 factors in 54 video games averaging 17:06 of ice time. He additionally had 65 hits and 77 blocked pictures and was an enormous a part of the penalty kill that misplaced Ian Cole to free company final offseason.
“Bringing Derek again for one more season is a crucial transfer for our group,” said Allvin in the press release following the signing. “His robust defensive play and strong work on the penalty kill actually helped solidify our again finish this previous 12 months. Derek has a powerful voice within the room and a few spectacular management qualities, and we are going to look to him to assist our staff proceed to develop and enhance this coming season.”
Now a veteran of 550 video games break up between the Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, and Canucks, Forbort shall be coming into his eleventh season within the NHL and can seemingly break the 1,000-hit and 1,000-block mark subsequent season as he sits at 923 within the former and 936 within the latter. His physicality, shot-blocking, and management shall be a welcome sight to a defence that doesn’t have loads of it, subsequent to possibly one other new face, Marcus Pettersson.
Forbort shall be becoming a member of a reasonably formidable blue line in 2025-26 that may even be including prime prospect Tom Willander and sure a full season of Elias Pettersson, who had a breakout rookie marketing campaign in 2024-25. Now that he’s re-signed, the defence is about for subsequent season with seven defencemen beneath contract, led in fact by captain Quinn Hughes.
