He put up decent points but he also had 10 of those points in 3 games. The other 24 he had just 7. I'm not a Canucks fan so not sure how Gaudette played, I know he had 0 points. But paying based on a playoff run isn't always ideal. Gurianov finally put it together but it's still just one good year for him so I think 2.55M is a bit much.
Gaudette is just not a comparable player. He had 28 goals against at even strength, resulting in his -7, despite only playing 12 minutes a game. His Goals Against per 60 was 3.4, which is the highest on the team except for Quinn Hughes and Bo Horvat. He has 60% offensive zone faceoffs but 46% CF, with roughly a -2% CF Rel. So most shifts he is starting in the offensive zone and yet still finding a way to let the puck get into his zone and get launched at his net. Maybe a part of that is that he won 41% of faceoffs. And obviously from all the above stats, he did not and was unable to play a single shift on the PK. As a result he was healthy scratched in I believe 10 regular season games and 7 playoff games. And played in the AHL for two games where he also had a negative plus-minus. That's before even getting into his playoff performance, where his offense was non-existent.
Guri is far from an elite defensive talent, he's still developing in his own end. But they are not even close in that end. Gurianov is competent but could be better. Gaudette is a liability, and gets benched by his own coach as a result.