Canucks: More on Justin Dowling, Brad Hunt, Brady Keeper

The Vancouver Canucks were easily one of the busiest teams during free agency this offseason.

Starting Wednesday morning, General Manager Jim Benning and his front office team were able to land a handful of available players, including back-up netminder Jaroslav Halak to a one-year, $1.5 million deal, as well as blueliners Tucker Poolman and Luke Schenn.

As expected, the team wasn’t able to hold onto every player, with blueliner Alex Edler, goaltender Braden Holtby and forward Sven Baertschi finding new homes.

However, Benning was still able to bring back some familiar faces, inking forward Brandon Sutter to a one-year, $1.125 million extension to fill out the fourth-line centre role, as well as defenceman Travis Hamonic to a two-year, $6 million contract to remain in the team’s top-four defensive core.

And he wasn’t done there.

After filling out the gaping holes on his roster, Benning also contributed to the depth of the team, landing forward Justin Dowling, as well as defencemen Brad Hunt and Brady Keeper, all to one-way deals.

Dowling was never drafted by an NHL team, and mainly found success in the AHL and ECHL. He played for the Abbotsford Heat, Utah Grizzlies and Idaho Steelheads before being signed to a standard AHL contract in 2012-13 by the Texas Stars, the AHL affiliate for the Dallas Stars.

Dowling performed quite well in his first year and a half in Texas, notching 28 goals and 49 assists in 112 games, and was eventually rewarded with a two-way NHL contract from Dallas in March 2014.

Dowling continued to develop his games in the AHL for the next two seasons before making his NHL debut on October 25th, 2016, where he registered one assist. Dowling continued to go back and forth between the clubs, suiting up for a combined 40 games in Dallas between 2018 and 2020, but was finally able to land a full-time NHL gig this past season. The 30-year-old played in 27 games, putting up one goal and four assists.

He also has some playoff experience with Dallas, notching two assists in 15 contests.

The Calgary, Alberta native signed a two-year, $1.5 million deal, with an AAV of $750,000 against the cap. Dowling is expected to compete for a fourth-line spot out of training camp, likely against Matthew Highmore and Zack MacEwen.

Hunt has a bit more NHL experience than Dowling, having already patrolled the blueline for the Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild. The Maple Ridge native also went undrafted out of college, and earned his first amateur tryout contract with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL during the 2011-12 season.

Hunt played under head coach Craig MacTavish, who eventually signed him to a two-year entry level as the Oilers’ General Manager. Hunt made his NHL debut on January 3rd, 2013.

Hunt made a few more trips down to the AHL before solidifying an NHL role in 2017-18 with Vegas. The 5’9, 177 pound blueliner posted five goals and 20 assists in 58 games with the Golden Knights, before being dealt to Minnesota halfway through the 2018-19 season. He signed a two-year, $1.4 million extension with his new team that offseason.

Hunt posted career-highs in goals (eight), assists (11) and points (19) in his first full-year with the Wild, but only suited up for 19 games the following season.

Hunt signed a one-year, $800,000 deal to join Vancouver, the sixth NHL team of his career.

Hunt has a smaller size compared to other defencemen in the league, but the 32-year-old has been known to be very offensively-minded with his high IQ vision and strong shot. He plays on the left side, but could end up on the outside looking in when it comes to landing a third pairing position, given that both Jack Rathbone and Olli Juolevi will also be competing for the spot.

Regardless of where he finds himself come opening night, Hunt is still very grateful to join his hometown team. He spoke with Satiar Shah, Dan Riccio and Randip Janda on “The People’s Show” on Sportsnet 650 earlier in the week, and could hardly contain his excitement at the opportunity of “making Maple Ridge proud”.

Keeper has the least amount of NHL experience amongst the trio, having only suited up for two games in his career so far.

Another undrafted player, Keeper played two seasons in the NCAA with the University of Maine, registering 44 points in 73 games on the blueline, before signing his entry-level contract with the Florida Panthers in March 2019.

Keeper made his NHL debut a week after the signing on March 28th, logging 12:40 of ice time while posting one SOG and a plus one rating. He also played in one playoff game the following year.

Clocking in at 6’2″ and 197 pounds, Keeper should be able to provide Abbotsford with a strong, aggressive, right-handed blueliner. Having gone straight from college to the NHL, Keeper unfortunately hasn’t been exposed to much professional development in the early years of his career, but that should hopefully change in Vancouver.

The signing was first shared by Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, who gave a special shoutout to the city of Cross Lake, Manitoba, where Keeper grew up. The land is also home to the Pimicikamak Cree Nation.

With the signings, Benning was able to add more depth to his forward and defence groups, which should help the both the Abbotsford and Vancouver Canucks succeed in the upcoming season.

What are your thoughts on this trio of one-way contracts? Let us know in the comments!