To open the Canucks 2012 Summer Summit, Mike Gillis fielded a couple of awkward questions from host John Shorthouse. The first was about Justin Schultz – and he declined to comment on how the pitch meeting went. The second concerned the team’s enviable depth in goal – some might even call it a log-jam – and any potential moves that might be on the horizon. While Mike Gillis declined to elaborate at length on any Luongo news – he told fans in attendance – and those watching over the canucks.nhl.com livestream, that the team had “agreed in principle” on a new deal with Canucks goaltender and pending restricted free-agent Cory Schneider.

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A fan later asked about the term and while Gillis declined to comment on the specifics of the deal until it was in fact “signed and executed” he assured the fan that “you’ll be happy.” Gillis’ comments were prophetic, and when the terms of the deal were reported by Nick Kypreos ($12M over three seasons), Canucks Nation was indeed happy:

#NHL signing. Canucks agree on new 3 year deal worth 12M with G Cory Schneider. 4M is his new cap hit. — Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) June 29, 2012

This is a pretty reasonable deal, pegged somewhere between a bargain Tuukka Rask and an outrageous Jonathan Quick. Three seasons is a good term length for goaltending. Goaltending, particularly good goaltending, is volatile, but Cory Schneider has some fine numbers in his young NHL career.

For sure, if Cory is the starter from here on out, his save percentage (career .928) will certainly regress thanks to the general wear and tear of starters work, and his PK SV % has been pretty high—it was .960 this season—which doesn’t tend to last year-to-year. That said, this is a very good bet, considering the term length, it doesn’t handicap the team down the road.

Remember, we’re heading into year three of the Roberto Luongo deal. If he were on a three year contract, well, this summer wouldn’t be so hectic.

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We have agreed in principle to a deal with Cory Schneider. More news in the next few days. — Mike Gillis (@GMMikeGillis) June 29, 2012

Could he mean a forthcoming Luu deal?





