Former Vancouver Canuck Loui Eriksson announced his retirement from the NHL on Monday. He enjoyed a 16-year career, playing 1,050 regular season games while scoring 286 goals and 682 points. Although saying he “enjoyed” his entire NHL career may be an oversimplification. For a few years, anyway. We take a look at his Canucks career after Loui Eriksson retires.
Misfit Canuck Loui Eriksson Retires
The 2016 free-agent season had been eagerly anticipated for a year. After a mild 2015 bunch that included luminaries such as defenceman Cody Franson and aging centre Brad Richards in the top 10, actual stars were available. No one actually expected Steven Stamkos to take offers, but there were plenty of names after him.
The unique combination of a fearsome enforcer and 20-goal, 55-point scorer put Milan Lucic near the top of the list. Kyle Okposo‘s reliable scoring and steady play meant another 60-point winger was on the list. David Backes wasn’t as big a scorer, but he was a veteran centre from whom you could expect 50 points and solid defence.
Many other forwards followed this general description. Good professionals, can produce at a second-line rate, defensively reliable. Andrew Ladd added “grit” and “leadership” to any team. Mikkel Bødker had good speed – always nice in a secondary scorer. Troy Brouwer was a wall-banger who could add 20 goals. Plug Frans Nielsen in anywhere and he’ll do the job.
The same pattern appeared describing the available defencemen. Dan Hamhuis, Jason Demers, and Brian Campbell all got the “reliable” adjective. The one star – Keith Yandle – never reached the market, but the ones who did were classically the second-pair guys. Second-line forwards and second-pair defencemen weren’t normally available. It was all so exciting!
What Happened
All that excitement got to a lot of general managers. The 2016 free agent pool is now spoken of in hushed tones in Toronto boardrooms and Florida resorts. But back then? It resulted in some of the worst contracts in league history. As names started coming off the board, teams who thought of themselves as frontrunners felt the pressure. And agents took advantage.
Demers got a five-year deal worth $22.5 million. Neilsen signed a six-year, $31.5 million deal. Ladd was signed for seven years at a total of $38.5 million. Okposo and Lucic each also got seven years and $42 million for their signatures. Darren Helm, a 28-year-old, bottom-six centre who had a career-high of 15 goals and 33 points, somehow turned his free agency into a five-year, $19.35 million deal.
So many of the players could just sit back and phone calls come to them. Agents asked their clients what they wanted, and they got it for them. Look up any of those names and see how they played out if you really want to. Not that we wouldn’t take those deals if somebody cares to offer…?
With that perspective, perhaps Eriksson getting a six-year, $36 million deal isn’t so bad. Except that yes, yes it was.
High Hopes
Eriksson joined a Canucks team who had missed the playoffs in a down season but had hit 101 points the year before. They had still lost in the first round, but management could pretend they were back in Stanley Cup contention. Eriksson played with the Sedins for Team Sweden at the 2013 World Championships and it went very well for them.
Sweden not only won gold, but in the four games they played together, Eriksson had seven points, Daniel Sedin six, and Henrik Sedin nine. With the twins’ NHL scoring down from previous years, maybe bringing Eriksson in would give them the boost the Canucks needed. The spirit was willing, but the talent was thin on that squad and the Sedins were in their mid-30s.
Like the other free agents that year, Eriksson had solid numbers leading into the 2016 offseason. His 30 goals and 63 points with Boston were finally close to his Dallas Stars numbers. He hadn’t filled the void left by the player he had been traded for three years earlier – Tyler Seguin – and Bruins fans let him know it.
Leaving that pressure and jumping a continent away to play with his Team Sweden linemates sounded perfect. And for the Canucks, Eriksson was well-known as a solid defensive player. Signing him to a six-year deal carried some risk, but even as he aged his defence would keep the contract’s value reasonably high. Of those big names, he was probably the safest. Right?
From Day One
Eriksson’s Canuck debut gave him a goal and an assist. Unfortunately, only the assist was in Vancouver’s favour.
It was an inauspicious beginning, especially since his signing was a controversial one among Canucks fans. Five years out from their appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, there was a sizable contingent of fans who wanted a rebuild. Yes, the team hit 100 points under new coach Wilie Desjardins in 2014-15, but few thought it was real.
Indeed, the start of the 2016-17 season effectively mirrored that belief. Vancouver started well enough, going 4-0-1. But when you looked closer, you noticed that four of those games were in overtime or a shootout. The points were real, but the success was an illusion. The Canucks lost the next eight games, all in regulation. They were shut out four times, and Eriksson had two assists in that span.
He didn’t last long on the Sedins’ wing. By the end of the year, he had scored 24 points in 65 games, Henrik had 50 points in 82, and Daniel 44 in 82. The Canucks finished at the bottom of the division with 30 wins and Desjardins was replaced by Travis Green for 2017-18.
Finding the Root(ing) Cause
Green had no more luck than Desjardins in getting the team out of the basement. He squeezed one more win and four more points from the squad in the Sedins’ final season. Eriksson finished the year playing just 50 games and scoring 23 points. The points just weren’t coming, fans were angry, and the very reasons for signing him were gone at year’s end.
But Green was finding a way to get some value from Eriksson. He was still a veteran winger who thought the game well. Remember that detail about what could salvage the contract? Well, that was starting in Year Three instead of Year Six. Green put his $6 million man – the most expensive player on the team – on defensive detail.
That use, and the way the coach lauded him for it, led to Loui Eriksson getting one of the stranger nicknames in Canuck history. He was praised for his ability to notice “the subtle things” a professional should pay attention to but don’t always. The unsubtle medium of radio changed it to “little things” and Eriksson’s new nickname was born.
Canuck Legend Loui Eriksson
Funny thing about mixing ironic praise with a frustrated fan base. Canucks fans are there to cheer on their team. All fans are, but Canucks fans will take their fandom to an absolutely surreal level. You could call it desperation for good news, or wondering what joy feels like, or just boredom, but it happens. In this case, Eriksson started to get cheered.
Not for goals, obviously. By the time 2019-20 rolled around, he had scored 32 goals and 76 points in 196 games. No, Eriksson was getting cheered for, well, the little things. Coach Green trusted him late in games? Okay, then the fans decided to cheer when he successfully killed a penalty. Or when he closed out a game without getting scored on. Or, yes, when he scored – but especially when it was an empty netter.
He did travel with the Canucks to the “Bubble Playoffs” in 2019-20, playing 10 of their 17 games. He scored zero points in those 10 games. Eriksson finished his career with one playoff run for each of Dallas, Boston, and Vancouver, each six years apart.
Vancouver finally sent Eriksson to the minors to start the truncated 2020-21 season, reasoning that no other team would want his contract. They were right, and Eriksson played just seven NHL games that year. He had one assist and averaged less than ten minutes per game.
Not-So-Grand Totals
Eriksson came to Vancouver for a fresh start, was signed as an act of desperation by a floundering general manager, and finished as a warning. In a truly bizarre move, rather than wait out the final year of his contract to finish, GM Jim Benning traded Eriksson away. He paid a massive price and brought back yet another long-term, burdensome contract.
All told, bringing in Eriksson in 2016 cost the team $30 million, a first-round pick in 2021 (Dylan Guenther), a second-round pick in 2022 (Hunter Haight), a seventh-round pick in 2023 (Yegor Rimashevsky), Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel. And the cost of buying out Oliver Ekman-Larsson after two seasons.
But Vancouver did get 252 games over five seasons of Eriksson’s life. He scored 38 goals and 98 points in that time, and more importantly provided another chapter in the Vancouver Canucks weird, weird history.
Main photo by: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
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