Canucks ink Hamonic to one-year deal

Travis Hamonic
signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract with the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old defenseman, who had been attending training camp on a professional tryout contract (PTO) signed Jan. 3, scored 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in 50 games with the Calgary Flames last season.
"It's certainly really exciting," Hamonic said. "I'm happy, grateful, really excited about the opportunity truthfully. And I know that my wife and our two young kids are really excited just to kind of dive into the community of Vancouver and B.C. and becoming a Canuck.
"On the ice, we feel like it's going to be a great fit for us and off the ice we feel like Vancouver is such an amazing place to live and such a beautiful city, so we're really excited as a family to start this new chapter, not only my career but of our lives as well."
Selected by the New York Islanders in the second round (No. 53) of the 2008 NHL Draft, Hamonic has scored 188 points (37 goals, 151 assists) in 637 NHL games with the Islanders and Flames, and four points (one goal, three assists) in 22 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
The Canucks open the regular season against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, TVAS2, NHL.TV).
"Obviously playing in Calgary the last handful of years, I've kind of had a firsthand opportunity to see some of the young players on this team and the skill they possess and the things they can do, and quite frankly seeing how hard it was to play against the Canucks the last couple years," Hamonic said. "So, it's certainly a lot nicer to be on this side of things and to be surrounded with that kind of talent as well is something that as a player you want that opportunity."