The 3 reasons Daniel Sprong signed with the Canucks.

The Vancouver Canucks have pulled off quit the shrewd move on Saturday, signing arguably the best available free agent forward still available on the market in the form of former Detroit Red Wings forward Daniel Sprong.

Not only did the Canucks manage to secure Sprong's services, but they did so at a cost much lower than what most had believed Sprong would earn as an unrestricted free agent. AFP Analytics had projected Sprong would earn a deal in the range of 3 years at an average annual value and salary cap hit of $4.1 million per season, a drastic difference than what the Canucks paid for Sprong on a 1 year deal at a cap hit of just $975,000 for next season.

So why did Daniel Sprong sign with the Canucks at such a discount? I believe there were three key factors that played into this decision, and here they are in no particular order.

#1 Fit.

At the end of the day a player wants to be comfortable with where he will be playing and for Sprong the Vancouver Canucks make a lot of sense. Although Sprong's point production was solid last season, he played in a very limited and sheltered role for the Detroit Red Wings, averaging just roughly 10 minutes of icetime a night.

In Vancouver the Canucks only have Brock Boeser and Conor Garland ahead of him on the depth chart as forwards that shoot right, and that could mean more opportunity for Sprong in the Canucks top-9 forward group.

#2 Glaring holes in Sprong's game.

How does a player go from being projected to earn over $12 million on his next contract to earning less than $1 million? I suspect that the defensive liabilities in Sprong's game combined with team's simply not wanting to deal with those liabilities massively decreased his value, especially as time wore on, once the free agent market opened up.

I mentioned the Red Wings played Sprong in a sheltered role and it was for this very reason, with Sprong being a genuine liability on the defensive side of the ice. Despite his sheltered role, Sprong was still on the ice for more high danger scoring chances against than any other Red Wing this past season.

At the end of the day, I don't believe there was much of an appetite from teams to give Sprong any kind of term on the open market, if any appetite at all. This deal from the Canucks may genuinely have been the offer his camp received in free agency.

#3 A chance to win.

In spite of the fact that Sprong has had a fairly lengthy career in the National Hockey League since the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted him in the second round (46th overall) of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, he has had relatively little experience during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sprong has appeared in 344 regular season games split between the aforementioned Penguins and Red Wings as well as the Anaheim Ducks, Washington Capitals and Seattle Kraken, but despite that he has just 13 playoff games under his belt.

The Canucks showcased last season that they are a legitimate playoff team and getting another shot at competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs may have been a big motivator for Sprong to sign with the Canucks.