Whatever free agents the Vancouver Canucks sign this offseason, they should have a single attribute in common and that commonality is that they are coming from a winner. But there are limits to what Vancouver can afford, as the increasing salary cap isn’t theirs alone to spend. And what players want to come to a team with this much chaos in its recent past?<\/p>\n
The final four teams in the 2024-25 Stanley Cup Playoffs are there because they’ve earned it. The Vancouver Canucks are not because, well, for fairly obvious reasons, we think. There are lessons, or at least players, to be had from anyone’s success, and sports are no different. If you’re going to steal, steal from the best.<\/p>\n
What does Vancouver want? We aren’t looking at top-end players here for two reasons. First, the teams they are with aren’t going to let them just walk away, and second, this isn’t a great year for free agents. Expect bidding wars for anyone worth the time. The Canucks may have $14 million to spend, but that puts them 22nd in the league right now. Let’s check out the bargain bin.<\/p>\n
The Dallas Stars<\/a>‘ upcoming free agents have a problem, time. Matt Duchene<\/a> may have scored 80 points last season, but he did it as a 34-year-old. His last two contracts were for one year and $3 million each, sure. But he is also being paid over $6.5 million by the Nashville Predators for those two seasons. He increased his earnings post-buyout.<\/p>\n Duchene has one more year of that bonus, then it drops to about $1.5 million. Maybe he’ll agree to another low-cost, low-risk, one-year deal for 2025-26, but why would he? He clearly likes Dallas, so if he takes a single, it’ll be with them. Want more? Pay more. Be ready to compensate for his drop in salary on a multi-year deal.<\/p>\n Beyond Duchene are a couple other old forwards. Jamie Benn, <\/a>a centre with some snarl and skill, might like to wrap up his career close to home. He is 35, but still managed 16 goals and 49 points last season. It will be curious to see what he does sign for, as he put the wraps on his eight-year, $9.5 million per year deal.<\/p>\n These aren’t the affordable<\/em> free agents Vancouver wants to sign. Unless Benn gives a steep hometown discount, and even then, for a very short term. If the Canucks are looking to add speed up front, Benn doesn’t have it.<\/p>\n One place the Canucks can find their bargain is on the blueline. Brendan Smith<\/a> isn’t exactly a needle-mover, but would fit in decently as a seventh defenceman. He filled that role decently enough with Dallas. And if the Canucks can’t bring Derek Forbort<\/a> back, they’ll want a veteran in case they have three rookies as blueline options.<\/p>\n As good as Elias Pettersson<\/a> and Victor Mancini<\/a> were, if Tom Willander<\/a> makes the club, that is way too little experience in three players. There are going to be mistakes and the occasional healthy scratch along the way. Smith can soften the effect.<\/p>\n Well, that was unexciting. How do the other teams look?<\/p>\n Here we have suitable options in the forward ranks. As a bonus, the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> are one of the few teams with even less cap space than Vancouver. For now, at least. Unfortunately, Edmonton will likely make a pitch to both players, as they have been effective linemates in the playoffs.<\/p>\n Connor Brown<\/a> has made a big comeback this season after stumbling badly the year before. He’s got the talent to play higher in the lineup for short bursts, but doesn’t need to play with stars to get results. Vancouver is a team that’s looking to take chances, and Brown could be worth the chance if he comes cheaply enough.<\/p>\n He’s finishing a one-year, $1 million deal, so the ticket’s not high. But he’s not the only option the Oilers present, and the second choice is more interesting.<\/p>\n Trent Frederic<\/a> is quite a good skater, especially given his size. At 6’3″ and 220 lbs, he’s got excellent size and isn’t shy about using it. He’s sound defensively, likes being on the forecheck, and specializes in wearing down opponents. Frederic is everything you could ask for in the bottom-six, except scoring. And being a left-shot centre instead of right-shot.<\/p>\n But otherwise, for a team that wants both speed and impact in the lineup, Frederic brings both.<\/p>\n Not to belabour the obvious, but the Canucks have been interested in Jack Roslovic<\/a> for a few seasons. And for good reason. Roslovic is a right-handed centre who has the talent to score 20 goals from a bottom-six spot. While he doesn’t have the responsibility in Carolina<\/a>, he was a short-handed fixture with the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>.<\/p>\n He’s a good skater on the right side of 30. There are compromises to be made with Roslovic, he’s not the best on faceoffs, for instance. But like with Brown, he has the skill to play with talented wingers and can move up the lineup in a pinch. He’s a solid, middle-six guy that you can reasonably hope can give you more.<\/p>\n Carolina has a “cheap insurance<\/em>” free agent that Vancouver might want to sign on defence, too. Riley Stillman<\/a> has been around the league, including a prior stint with the Canucks. Like with Brendan Smith, he knows what it takes to be a seventh man.<\/p>\n And last time Vancouver traded Stillman, they got Josh Bloom out of the deal, and he’s off to a nice start<\/a> in Kalamazoo.<\/p>\n Saving the biggest swing for last, here. The Florida Panthers<\/a> may be his fourth team, and they may play him as often as a solar eclipse happens, but Jesse Puljujarvi<\/a> is worth a shot. We’ve already said it, but it bears repeating, that Vancouver is looking to take chances.<\/p>\n Any prospect of success next season needs to have some bets pay off for the Canucks. Puljujarvi is a low-cost bet with a chance to payout big. He played for league minimum this season, and unless he wants to return to Europe, he’ll be close to that next season, too.<\/p>\n The knock on Puljuharvi isn’t a lack of effort. He’s still a very fast skater, and we know there’s scoring talent buried in there somewhere. You don’t get to be a top-five draft pick without scoring talent. But even if that remains hidden, he should be a very good forechecker at the very least.<\/p>\n The problem has been that he’s tended to play his own game. He improvises a lot out there, feeling out the situation rather than sticking to a system. If, and a big if, a team thinks they can convince him that his NHL career is on the line, then maybe they can have a bargain. A low-cost, 6’4″, 215 lbs speedster who loves to hit opposing players tends to be a fan favourite.<\/p>\n And that sounds like the sort of free agent Vancouver should sign this offseason.<\/p>\n Main Photo Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whatever free agents the Vancouver Canucks sign this offseason, they should have a single attribute in common and that commonality is that they are coming from a winner. But there are limits to what Vancouver can afford, as the increasing salary cap isn’t theirs alone to spend. And what players want to come to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":469326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4547,4548],"tags":[850,507,1106,212,3105,2325,5892],"class_list":["post-469252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canucks","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-brendan-smith","tag-connor-brown","tag-jack-roslovic","tag-jesse-puljujarvi","tag-riley-stillman","tag-trent-frederic","tag-vancouver-canucks-analysis"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469327,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469252\/revisions\/469327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Oh, Okay<\/h4>\n
Edmonton Oilers<\/h4>\n
Carolina Hurricanes<\/h4>\n
Florida Panthers<\/h4>\n