The Vancouver Canucks defence almost looked a lot different this season, but wasting too much time on Nikita Zadorov caused them to lose out on one of the best free agent defencemen of the 2024 class.
Zadorov, of course, signed a six-year, $30 million contract with the Boston Bruins on the opening day of free agency on July 1, 2024, so the Canucks were quickly without their prized trade acquisition and needed to pivot.
They tried to pivot to New Jersey Devils defenceman Brenden Dillon, but as the saying goes, if you snooze, you lose. And the Canucks lost.
In a phone appearance on "Donnie & Dhali", Dillon, 34, recounted his experience in free agency last summer.
"It's a weird process, free agency. When you talk to players, especially for me since it was my first time going through that whole thing. I of course spend time in Vancouver in the summers and I'm around a lot of the Canucks guys, just when skates get there towards the end of August. You're skating with the Canucks guys, everyone's out here wearing Canucks stuff and you're like 'Oh yeah, we're doing Canucks drills,' Yogi's running the skates. You're kind of like, 'Ok, this is a pretty good routine!'
"I was very fortunate when I was a free agent last summer to talk to as many teams as I did. It's an awesome process when, for the first time in your career you're hearing that you're a good player. These guys like you, yeah, you're this, you're perfect, like wow! You haven't heard that ever. From the Canucks standpoint, I think they were going through things with [Nikita Zadorov]. I think, at the time, there were some certain decisions they were making up front with forwards.
"The one thing, too, is you want to make sure you're not left without a seat at the table come the middle of July, end of July, August. Jersey, from the forefront, was very... what my role could be, who I could fit in with, the types of D partners that could be there for me. I was somebody, the way that I played the game, they didn't really have. Of course, I take a lot of pride in that and just trying to do my best to provide some leadership, physicality, skating. A guy that's been around a little bit.
"The Canucks, again, my career's not over, and maybe one day it'll work out. I definitely disappointed a few buddies of mine back in Surrey, B.C., for sure not signing at home."
After missing out on Dillon and Zadorov, the Canucks ultimately plugged the hole on the left side of their defence by trading a 2025 first-round pick for former Pittsburgh Penguins rearguard Marcus Pettersson on Jan. 31.
Pettersson signed a six-year, $33 million contract extension with the Canucks only five days later, but signing Dillon would have saved them a ton of cash and a top draft pick.