Former Vancouver Canucks forward Tyler Toffoli has made a career of scoring against his former team and he helped do so once again this weekend.
The 32-year-old sniper is now with the lowly San Jose Sharks after signing a four-year deal over the summer. Toffoli is a player that has moved around quite a bit throughout his career, which includes a short 17-game stint with the Canucks back in the 2019-20 season.
That year saw the Canucks acquire him from the LA Kings at the trade deadline. He scored six goals and 10 points in 10 regular season games and then added two more goals and five points in seven playoff games.
This was the COVID-interrupted year, but it was as good a start with a new team as either the Canucks or Toffoli could ask for. But then it ended. The Canucks opted not to sign Toffoli to an extension and he moved on to Montreal Canadiens that summer.
It seemed odd to see Toffoli leave after such a great start and the NHL vet opened up about the situation on the latest edition of After Hours with Scott Oake.
“Very unfortunate situation with COVID and no one really knowing what would come next,” Toffoli started. “It was what it was, obviously happy for the guys that are still there and happy they are doing well.”
Toffoli also mentioned a few other key players of that Canucks team that also left that summer, including goaltender Jacob Markstrom and defenceman Troy Stecher.
The Canucks gave up a decent haul to bring Toffoli into the mix back then with prospect Tyler Madden being the focal point of the return. Luckily for Vancouver, it doesn’t appear any of the pieces they gave up in that trade amounted to much.
While Toffoli may find his way back to Vancouver at some point in his career, it’s looking unlikely that it will happen any time soon. He is inked to a four-year deal in San Jose right now and, after being traded multiple times over the last couple of seasons, made sure to include a no-movement clause in his contract this time around.
Still, Canucks fans look back fondly on his short tenure in Vancouver.