After spending his entire eleven season career with the Vancouver Canucks, defenseman Mattias Ohlund is going to the Tampa Bay Lightning with a new seven-year contract worth $26.25 million. At an average of 3.75-million per season, that is a bargain in today’s NHL for a top-two defenseman.
In Ohlund, the Lightning have added the top-two defenseman they desperately needed to lead their blue line and secondly, have found a leader and a mentor for 2009 second overall draft pick Victor Hedman.
The 32-year-old native of Sweden had 25-points in 81 games with the Canucks last season and at 32, Ohlund still has several years of good hockey left ahead of him. His 93-goals and 325-points are the most in a career by any defenseman in Vancouver Canucks team history.
Ohlund was drafted by Vancouver 13th overall in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. Most noteably in his career thus far, he was a member of the gold-medal-winning Swedish Olympic team at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
When Chris Pronger first entered the NHL back in the 1993-94 campaign with the Hartford Whalers, he finished the season second in defenseman team scoring with 30-points as a lanky 19-year-old rookie. If Hedman, who is most often compared to Pronger, can crack the 30-point barrier in his freshman year, along with some solid defensive play, it would be an impressive start in today’s NHL.
In the end, the Ohlund signing may just turn out to be the best of them in all among the 2009 lot, because of the intangibles it holds.
