Vancouver does not have a great night life.
I couldn't give less of a shit about nightlife, and Vancouver is one of the best cities in the world.
Carry on with the strange debate.
Vancouver would be on the bottom half of the league's teams for "exciting, cultural destination cities". I'd easily rather NY (any of the 3 teams, even the Isles), LA (either of the two teams locations), Chicago, D.C., Philly, Miami, Boston, Toronto, Tampa, Nashville, LV, Montreal, and soon Seattle for a night out. San Jose kind of sucks, but if you can count San Francisco as within its commutable distance I'd include that too.
The "nightlife" here are Coal Harbour penthouse parties hosted by the Chinese or British Properties mansion events hosted by the Iranians overlooking the ocean. Going to a public establishment just means paying through the nose for shitty food and alcohol to look at girls. And I don't even mean the strip club.
That said, Vancouver is arguably the most comfortably livable city in the continent, especially for someone reasonably wealthy (middling NHLers) and not ultra-rich (NBA superstars), who would probably pine for more attention and events.
Aside from the tax implications I've generally felt/observed most players would not mind signing here, and I would totally speculate it likely makes an averange NHL FA's top 10 destinations and quite possibly the most preferred Canadian destination. If a player can comfortably pick up a new 3BR condo by the water downtown or a home in Point Grey, it definitely is a pretty swank place to live.
Ok, thread derail over. Good signing for JV. Still pissed about losing Toffoli (and Madden) for nothing. I feel like they'll be able to figure out the cap situation this season. Wonder how we adjudicate the season to season change for now that JV is no longer on the casualty list; lost Markstrom/Tanev/Stetcher/Toffoli, gained Holtby/Schmidt.