It’s been nearly two weeks since free agency officially began. And it feels likes an eternity until the next NHL season starts; if it even starts. It feels particularly longer and somewhat miserable too for Canucks fans. Having seen two heart and soul defensemen in Chris Tanev and Troy Stetcher move onto different teams, losing a player they spent a 2nd round pick and a good prospect for in Tyler Toffoli and the guy who was arguably their MVP last season in Jacob Markstrom. And the key pieces they’ve gotten to try and fix some of those holes are Braden Holtby and Nate Schmidt. While those two additions aren’t terrible, there’s still a lot more the Canucks need to address for the remainder of the off-season. Here are a few things that are of importance to Jim Benning and his management group.
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Sign Another Defenseman
This is arguably the biggest area of concern for the Canucks. Quinn Hughes, Nate Schmidt, Alex Edler and Tyler Myers is an okay top 4, but after that, it’s not pretty. Jordie Benn, Olli Juolevi, Brogan Rafferty and Jack Rathbone are the next group of guys who could be in the Canucks top 6 defence group. Ideally, Benning should try and consider looking for someone on a short-term deal who can be serviceable for the penalty kill. And while it’s tempting to go after someone like Travis Hamonic because he’s considered a “high” profile player still available, some of Hamonic’s advanced stats are actually worse than Tyler Myers. And considering how stressful it was to watch Myers play during last season it would be very beneficial not to see those two players on the same NHL team. Instead, Benning should look more closely at guys like Slater Koekkok and Jan Rutta. Two players with positive Corsi numbers and can play bottom-pair roles. Rutta would be more attractive because of him being a right-shot defenseman. Though it’s going to be hard to try and get either one of them signed if you’re a team strapped for cap space, which we’ll get to next.
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Find Ways To Clear Cap Space
As it stands right now, the Canucks have exactly 1,048,122 in cap space left. And that’s without signing Jake Virtanen and another defenseman. Obvious candidates that Canucks fans would like to move on from would be Jay Beagle, Loui Eriksson and Brandon Sutter to name a few. At this rate, buying one of them out doesn’t seem like the ideal route the Canucks management wants to take. Especially after breaking down what it would cost to try and buy out one of those albatross deals. For example, if the Canucks were to buyout Brandon Sutter, it would be a little over $2 million for this upcoming season, and still cost the Canucks a little more than $1 million the following season. And with all the uncertainty involving the pandemic, trying to save as much as possible is a necessity. So what’s the other option? Well, it’s to try and trade one of those contracts, but with a heavy sweetener to make it more enticing. A recent example of a team doing this was the New York Rangers. The Rangers traded Marc Staal and his $5.7 million contract to the Detroit Red Wings, but it also had a 2nd round draft pick for next year attached to it. Seems like something Benning and his group could try and do, but it may not be the best thing considering they might not be as good next season as they were this season with all the talent they’ve lost to free agency.
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Jake Virtanen
One of the more controversial Canucks is still without a contract and is currently on his way to arbitration that is set to take begin on Oct 28th. According to a piece by Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance from The Athletic, “…The two sides are widely expected to come to terms on a one- or two-year deal within that $2.5-$3 million range.” So at this rate, it’s going to come down to the wire for both parties to try and get this sorted out before Oct 28th. It’s not an absolutely outrageous request from Virtanen and his camp considering he finished the season with 18 goals; which was 5th on the team, and could’ve hit 20 if the regular season didn’t come to an end when it did. The issue though is that Virtanen’s all-around game isn’t spectacular. It’s been discussed numerous times in the past, including by Travis Green himself. Virtanen was even a healthy scratch to start the return to play back in August. And by the end of the 2020 playoffs, Virtanen only registered 3 points in 16 games. For a former 6th overall pick, those are not things you want to see.
Judging from everything that has been discussed, it’s looking like it’ll be a long year as a Canucks fan. That is if they’re unable to get any one of these issues resolved. Miracles do happen, but it’s not looking promising.