Jake DeBrusk breaks silence on leaving Bruins as free agent

The Boston Bruins lost a longtime member of the organization on July 1 when Jake DeBrusk signed with the Vancouver Canucks as an unrestricted free agent.

Two days after deciding to move from Massachusetts to British Columbia, DeBrusk shared a message with Bruins fans on his social media to bid farewell to them and the Boston hockey club.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to everyone I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and know over my last 7 years in the black and gold. There will always be a place in my heart for Boston and that’s because of my teammates I’ve wrestled with and the fans that have been with me from the beginning! With all that said, I’m extremely excited to start this new chapter of my career and be in Vancouver and put on that Canucks jersey! #itsshowtime #cheers,” DeBrusk wrote on his Instagram account on July 3.

The Bruins drafted DeBrusk with the 14th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. After waiting a few years to make his debut, DeBrusk played in 465 games for the Bruins, scoring 138 goals and 128 assists for 266 points.

DeBrusk signed with the Canucks on July 1 after completing a contract with the Bruins and hitting the open market as an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2024-25 season.

The forward scored 19 goals and made 21 assists for a total of 40 points in 2024, appearing in 80 regular-season games. He also played in 13 post-season games, scoring 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists).

Did the Canucks miss their chance at free agency?

It’s fair to say that Jake DeBrusk wasn’t the best player when he hit the free agent market on July 1.

With players like Jake Guentzel, Steven Stamkos and Elias Lindholm hitting the open market as forwards, DeBrusk was seen as a “Plan B” option for most organizations in case they failed to land top targets.

That wasn’t the case for the Canucks, however. According to Thomas Drance of The Athletic, Vancouver had targeted DeBrusk early on and considered him their top target to sign as a free agent, knowing that signing Guentzel would be a tall order.

“The Canucks never attempted to trade the signing rights to Jake Guentzel,” Drance wrote. “From the beginning, they preferred the younger, more affordable option of Jake DeBrusk to bolster their top-six forward group.

“The Canucks have obviously been secretive about their free agency intentions, to the point of breaking up nearly all of their own signings, but multiple team sources told The Athletic after the dust settled Monday that one reason Vancouver didn’t try to trade for Guentzel’s rights is because DeBrusk was their top target among the top six forwards all along.”

DeBrusk signed a seven-year, $38.5 million contract with the Canucks on July 1, with an annual salary cap hit of $5.5 million. DeBrusk’s contract will run through the 2030-31 season, during which he will enter unrestricted free agency for the second time in his career.

Bruins sign Elias Lindholm from Vancouver

Although Boston lost DeBrusk, Bruins fans have to be pleased with how the franchise filled that void.

The Bruins made the biggest deal of the 2024 offseason by signing former Canucks center Elias Lindholm to a whopping $54.2 million contract over the next seven seasons with an average annual value of $7.75 million per year.

Lindholm’s contract with Boston is also the second-largest contrast in terms of AAV, surpassed only by the $8 million AAV of new Nashville Predators forward Steven Stamkos.

Not only did Boston bring in Lindholm from Vancouver, but the Bruins also managed to sign defenseman Nikita Zadorov from the Canucks, completing the Canadian sweep on the first day of free agency.

The Bruins signed Zadorov to another big contract. The defenseman signed a six-year deal worth $30 million with a salary cap hit of $5 million per season.

Zadorov, who has been compared to legendary Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, was quick to warn his new fans that he wants them to respect the one man who should be known as “Big Z.”

“I’m nowhere near Chara’s level and I want to start with the fact that on my previous teams, people called me ‘Big Z,’” Zadorov said during a Zoom call on July 2. “Please don’t ever call me ‘Big Z’ again.”