The Vancouver Canucks have a ton of pending free agents to deal with, including Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm, and less than $18 million of cap room for their big targets.
Updated (June 18, 5:45 p.m. ET): With less than two weeks before July 1, there are still more questions than answers about how the Vancouver Canucks will spend their money this off-season.
The Canucks have made one player transaction since their season ended on May 20, signing defenseman Filip Hronek to an eight-year contract worth $7.25 million per year.
The only hockey operations news has been Manny Malhotra taking over from Jeremy Colliton as coach of the AHL Abbotsford Canucks, Yogi Svejkovsky moving into Mike Yeo’s spot as an assistant coach with the big club and Daniel and Henrik Sedin taking an expanded role.
Meanwhile, the Canucks have about $17.78 million in cap space to use on filling the holes left by nine UFAs and one RFA, according to PuckPedia.
That money would get used up pretty quickly if the team re-signs all of its biggest fish, so that explains why there are rumors the club would be open to trading Ilya Mikheyev and the final two years of his $4.75-million cap hit to create some extra flexibility.
Last year, management made a huge splash by buying out the last four years of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract. They'll carry a $2.3-million penalty in 2024-25, but the move opened up more than $7 million in extra space last season.
That covered about 85 percent of Vancouver's July 1 free agency commitments in Ian Cole ($3 million), Carson Soucy ($3.25 million) and Teddy Blueger ($1.9 million).
This year, the numbers for the Canucks' primary targets are bigger, and that intertwines the negotiations.
The Latest on the Pending UFAs
After Elias Lindholm’s strong showing in the playoffs, Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast on June 7 that he believed the Canucks were willing to offer seven years at $7 million for Lindholm to stay. But he said that might not be enough to get a deal done.
Earlier in the season, it’s believed that Lindholm turned down an eight-year extension offer with the Calgary Flames that was in the range of $8 million to $8.5 million. But while he was seen as the No. 1 rental available at center ahead of the trade deadline, Lindholm's value slipped during the second half of the season before he rebounded in the playoffs.
Even if Lindholm agreed to $7 million, is that a prudent expense for a player who would essentially be the team’s third-line center — behind Elias Pettersson ($11.6 million) and J.T. Miller ($8 million)? And would Lindholm be satisfied with that role?
If he is retained, that could also affect Vancouver’s ability to bring back fan favorite Nikita Zadorov. The big Russian made such an impression during his six-month stint with the Canucks that he was forced to limit the comments on his Instagram posts last week because he was being bombarded with pleas from fans to re-sign.
Zadorov brought size and snarl to Vancouver’s blueline along with his gift of gab in post-game scrums and press conferences. He has said that he and his family have enjoyed their time in Vancouver, and it’s believed that he’s prioritizing contract term over maxxing out his annual value.
On Monday, Friedman told The Donnie and Dhali Show that while he thinks it will be tough for the Canucks to keep Zadorov, the player would like to stay and is willing to take less in Vancouver, but there is a limit to how deep his hometown discount will go.
So he’s saying… there’s a chance?
Friedman also mentioned that this year's market for power forwards like Dakota Joshua who can find the net is expected to be robust. That will likely price him out of Vancouver’s plans.
The Canucks' other pending UFAs include forwards Blueger and Sam Lafferty, defensemen Tyler Myers, Ian Cole and Mark Friedman and backup goalie Casey DeSmith.
Blueger could be an option to return, and after playing the last five years at a cap hit of $6 million, 34-year-old Myers has indicated that he'd come back at a lower price point.
Management likely needs to see how its other negotiations shake out before offering Myers or Blueger a deal. The others, most likely, will be moving on.
What About the RFAs?
The Canucks also had two intriguing RFAs in goalie Arturs Silovs and Hronek, but the latter just cashed in.
He keeps a low profile, but Hronek, 26, put himself in a great situation to call his next shot at the most important junction of his career to date.
He's coming off a tremendous statistical season that saw him put up a career-high 48 points. And while his production tapered off during the second half of the year and into the playoffs, Hronek profiles as a top-pairing right-shot defenseman who’s good on both sides of the puck.
In late May, Rick Dhaliwal reported that Hronek was firm on his ask of $8 million a year. That's in the ballpark of top comparables like Jacob Trouba or Mikhail Sergachev — even before factoring in the inflation that's coming now that the salary cap has now begun to regularly rise again. But with Tuesday's news, Hronek settled for a little less.
The contract was almost a best-case scenario for the Canucks, carrying a cap hit that's similar to the one that Vince Dunn settled for in Seattle after his arbitration filing last July.
Coming off a 64-point season at age 26, Dunn and the Kraken avoided a hearing by signing a four-year deal at $7.35 million. That will give him another shot at a big payday when he is 30 years old.
As for Vancouver's other RFA, 23-year-old Silovs is coming out of his entry-level contract and doesn’t have arbitration rights. His deal should be relatively straightforward, but he could start next season as Thatcher Demko's backup.
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