The offseason has arrived with roughly half of the league finished up after missing the playoffs and eight more being ousted in the first round. It’s time to examine what those teams need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Vancouver.
The Canucks underwent several significant changes over the offseason which made them a bit of a wild card team heading into the season. However, they didn’t get off to a good start, had injuries all season, and a rough battle with COVID-19 in between. The end result was a seventh-place finish in the seven-team North Division. Ownership decided to keep GM Jim Benning around and he was able to get head coach Travis Green signed to a short-term contract, taking one big item off his to-do list. There is still a lot of work to be done, however.
Free Up Cap Space
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Benning opted to bring in several veterans over the last few offseasons to try to bolster his roster. While some improvements were made, it also took away from their salary cap flexibility. They’ve been into LTIR the last couple of years and are going to be hit with another bonus overage penalty next season. Yes, they have some contracts coming off the books but those players need to be re-signed or replaced. That will be tricky to do without creating some more flexibility.
To that end, Benning suggested at the end of the season that he’s open to using a buyout. However, a lot of those deals (such as Loui Eriksson’s) have a structure that makes the net cap savings minimal. There aren’t many viable options to choose from. That’s why it’s not too surprising that Nate Schmidt’s name has surfaced in trade speculation as of late with the veteran having four years left at a $5.95MM price tag.
Keeping the core intact is one thing but finding a way to add to it to help Vancouver take a step forward will be a significant challenge for Benning over the coming months.
Replace/Retain UFA Defensemen
Let’s look at some of those expiring contracts, particularly on the back end. Alexander Edler has been a fixture on Vancouver’s blueline since the 2006-07 season and he has made it clear on multiple occasions that he wants to remain with the Canucks. He’s coming off a tough season but before that, he had been a steady two-way defender. And even though the 35-year-old struggled, he still logged more than 20 minutes a night. He won’t cost $6MM to sign again but his role isn’t one they can fill from within just yet either.
The other pending UFA that needs to be addressed is Travis Hamonic. A late signee in the offseason, the veteran received a no-move clause which he used to keep himself with Vancouver past the deadline as there was trade interest in him. A capable stay-at-home defender, he’s someone that should command more than the $1.25MM he made this season if he wanted to test the open market. He doesn’t seem to want to so another bargain contract is a possibility.
Of course, dealing with (or replacing) these two doesn’t necessarily add to their roster but it’s still something that will need to happen in the weeks ahead.
New Deals For Young Stars
Adding to the challenges of dealing with the aforementioned defensemen is that most of the money coming off the books will be needed for new contracts for their two top youngsters in defenseman Quinn Hughes and forward Elias Pettersson as both are restricted free agents this summer.
Hughes has quickly become one of the more dangerous offensive rearguards in the league. Over his two full NHL seasons, only three defenders have more points than his 94 – Victor Hedman, John Carlson, and Roman Josi. (Cale Makar also has 94.) That’s impressive company to be in and it will allow the 21-year-old to potentially command a significant contract even in this environment and with just 129 career regular season games under his belt, about the equivalent of a year and a half in non-shortened campaigns. He’s not the strongest player in his own end but offensive stats often drive negotiations and that is certainly in Hughes’ favor. It’s worth noting that while is a restricted free agent, he doesn’t have enough service time to be eligible for an offer sheet.
As for Pettersson, his platform year was hardly an ideal one. He got off to a tough start offensively and then missed the final two months with a wrist injury, only managing 21 points in 26 games as a result. However, the 22-year-old still has plenty going for him. He had two seasons of 66 points before this one, quickly becoming a fixture on the top line in the process. Pettersson also has the ability to play down the middle and that can usually boost a players’ value as well. Unlike Hughes, Pettersson is eligible for an offer sheet (though that’s an unlikely outcome) but also isn’t able to file for arbitration.
In a perfect world, both players would sign long-term contracts that buy out some UFA eligibility, giving the Canucks their two top youngsters for the long haul. But doing that costs considerably more money than a shorter-term bridge contract. Vancouver can’t afford long-term deals for both of them while dealing with their UFA blueliners and filling out the rest of their roster (which still only gets them to where they were at the end of the season and not conceivably better as a result). One could be doable depending on what else Benning has up his sleeve so they’re going to have to choose wisely as to who gets it and who doesn’t.
Extension Talks For Boeser
While they need to deal with Hughes and Pettersson, Benning also has to keep in mind the other big-ticket deal on the horizon as winger Brock Boeser will be a restricted free agent next summer which means he will be eligible to sign a new contract once the calendar flips to the 2021-22 season. He’ll be a year away from unrestricted free agency at that time and since his deal was signed before the new CBA, the qualifying offer is the salary of the final season which is $7.5MM, well above his current $5.875MM AAV.
Knowing that increase will be coming in a year later, Benning would be wise to see what a long-term extension would cost which shouldn’t be much more than that qualifier in this cap environment. That type of certainty would also be useful in terms of budgeting whether or not they can afford long-term contracts for their two star RFAs.
Even if they can’t hammer out a new contract now (one of the sides may prefer to wait and see what next year brings), getting an idea of what the framework of a deal would look like would be very useful as Benning looks to map out the rest of his offseason planning.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.