Defenceman Kevin Bieksa has agreed to terms on a new five-year, $23 million contract with the Vancouver Canucks.
The deal will pay the blueliner $4.6 million per season, and also includes a no-trade clause.
Bieksa was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on Friday. He just completed a three-year, $11.25 million contract with Vancouver.
"I don't think money was ever a determining factor for me. I think finding a place that I want to be and a place that my family wants to be, on a team that's going to contend every year," Bieksa said during a conference call on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Bieksa has spent all six of NHL seasons with the Canucks since entering the league in 2005-06.
He had six goals and 16 points in 66 games for the Canucks this season and worked his way from prime trade candidate last off-season to being one of Vancouver's top defenceman. Bieksa added five goals and five assists in 25 playoff games during Vancouver's run to the Stanley Cup Final.
"There's no team in the league that's more committed to winning than Vancouver and the (team owner) Aquilini's prove that every year,'' Bieksa said.
"Mike Gillis has done a great job. This team wants to win, they're going to do whatever it takes to win and I love the city."
General manager Gillis said keeping the defensive pair of Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis together played a role in the signing.
"We felt he and Dan were a really solid pair for us," said Gillis. "They have an opportunity now to play together for a long time and we consider those guys key players here so it was very important."
Bieksa has 34 goals and 113 assists in 347 career NHL games.
The native of Grimsby, Ontario was Vancouver's fifth-round pick in the 2001 Draft.
