Vancouver Canucks could have a steal of a deal in Daniel Sprong

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Cooper Godin
September 22, 2024 (4:03 PM)

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The Vancouver Canucks could have a steal of a deal in forward Daniel Sprong.

Heading into free agency, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin wanted to add some depth to the team's roster for the 2024-25 season after signing their big fish, Jake DeBrusk, on July 1st.

One player Patrik Allvin was able to eventually get was Dutch forward Daniel Sprong, who they inked to a one-year contract worth $975,000.

Sprong is coming off another solid year and his second consecutive campaign with 40+ points and it looks like he's already making quite the impression at the Canucks' training camp.

On a recent edition of Sekeres and Price, Jeff Paterson shared how impressed he was with Daniel Sprong's shot at training camp so far.

"There is some pop. Like, there was something a little bit different, just in the release of Daniel Sprong and his shot here. Something I wanted to look at on Day 1, now was he shooting on high end NHL goaltenders? No and you do have to keep that and the context matters here, but just in terms of the way he gets the puck off his stick, you can see why he has been a successful goal scorer in the National Hockey League to this point and certainly the Canucks are hoping that he does more of that this year." Paterson said.

He added, "But you're right, how many opportunities will he get to unleash that shot? What kind of role will he be playing? Who will he be playing with? All of that is going to be determined here and so yeah, kind of feels like maybe that is some of the message to him that we're not putting you with Elias Pettersson right off the hop, you may wind up there, you may get some preseason games there, but at least to start, the first couple of days of camp, you're going to have to earn your place and so we'll see where it goes from here for Daniel Sprong. But yeah, I mean he came sort of as advertised when he was in those shooting positions, he didn't waste his opportunities yesterday."

Last season with the Detroit Red Wings, the Amsterdam native registered 43 points (18 goals, 25 assists), 22 penalty minutes and was a minus-five. If he's able to give the Canucks anywhere from 15 to 20 goals this season, his contract could be viewed as one of the best signed during the summer.

Sprong will don the Canucks uniform for the first time this week in one of the team's preseason games. It hasn't been determined which game he's expected to play in just yet, but it could come as early as Tuesday against Seattle.