{"id":12226,"date":"2017-07-01T07:58:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T11:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=12226"},"modified":"2017-07-01T12:34:32","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T16:34:32","slug":"anders-nilsson-signs-vancouver-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/07\/01\/anders-nilsson-signs-vancouver-canucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Anders Nilsson to Sign with the Vancouver Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to Bob McKenzie, goaltender Anders Nilsson has agreed to sign with the Vancouver Canucks. \u00a0His new contract earns him $5 million over two years.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"de\" dir=\"ltr\">Sam Gagner, Michael Del Zotto and G Anders Nilsson to VAN.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TSNBobMcKenzie\/status\/881114999892127744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Anders Nilsson with Canucks, two years, $2.5 M aav<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PierreVLeBrun\/status\/881181523260702720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Anders Nilsson Signs with the Vancouver Canucks<\/h3>\n<p>Nilsson was drafted in the third round back in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Islanders. After a great season in the SHL with Lulea HF in which he had a 1.92 goals-against average, Nilsson signed an entry-level contract with Long Island.<\/p>\n<p>He came over to North America in 2011-12, where he primarily played for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL. In 25 games, Nilsson had a .921 save percentage and a 2.41 GAA. He also made his NHL debut, playing four games with the Islanders.<\/p>\n<p>The following year Nilsson struggled. He finished with a 2.93 GAA and a .899 SV% with Bridgeport in 21 games. In 2012-13, his numbers slightly\u00a0rose up to a .901 SV% but continued to struggle in the limited NHL he saw. In 19 games, Nilsson had a 3.11 GAA and a .896 SV%.<\/p>\n<p>Nilsson then left to go to the KHL. He joined Ak Bars Kazan, where he posted a 1.71 GAA and a .936 SV% in 38 games. Nilsson was a member of the KHL first all-star team as the league&#8217;s top goaltender, performing admirably in the postseason as well.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to the NHL after just one year in Russia. After his rights were traded, he signed a two-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers to backup Cam Talbot. He only lasted 31 games, however, being traded to the St. Louis Blues after a disappointing .901 SV%.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, Nilsson was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a fifth-round pick. In 2016-17, the 27-year-old had the best year of his career. Backing up Robin Lehner, Nilsson played 26 games, finishing with a 2.67 GAA and a .923 SV%.<\/p>\n<p>Anders Nilsson joins the Canucks to be a backup to Jacob Markstrom. With Ryan Miller leaving, it is finally Markstrom&#8217;s crease in B.C. Nilsson has shown he can take a good workload as a backup, with 26 games last year and 31 in Edmonton two seasons ago. Overall, it is a low-risk bet for Vancouver on one of the better backup options on the open market.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/618690134\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/618690134?et=IHMk0QiUTr5DPY_c3vNEpQ&amp;tld=ca&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=vZ3HryUGwPIWUDF98y8XFIm5fkyjFYBKI3lnc4ljqZ0=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Goaltender Anders Nilsson has signed a ____ year, ____ contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Nilsson had a 2.67 GAA and a .923 SV% with the Sabres last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1858,"featured_media":12240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,26],"tags":[1866,182,37,38,662,158],"class_list":["post-12226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-canucks","tag-anders-nilsson","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-vancouver-canucks"],"modified_by":"Zach Oswanski","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}