The Vancouver Canucks were active to replace the free agents they lost due to salary cap constraints. Will it match last season's standard and help the team go further?
Jake DeBrusk and Arturs SilovsAfter the Vancouver Canucks bowed out of the playoffs at the end of the second round, GM Patrik Allvin made it clear that his goal was to make his Cinderella squad even better next season.
And while he was squeezed by salary-cap constraints and a long list of impending free agents, he came out of July 1 with a full roster that looks capable of matching the standard that was set last season — "if everything goes right," as Jim Rutherford would say.
The Canucks will still be led by their core stars, including newly minted Norris winner Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson. Allvin told the media on Monday that Boeser is recovering well from the blood clot that he suffered during the playoffs, and Thatcher Demko's rehab is also going smoothly. Both players are expected to be ready for training camp.
On Monday, Allvin signed six players who should see minutes with the big club next season at a total cap hit of just over $13.5 million.
Considering that Boston committed $12.75 million to the two Canucks who departed, Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, that's a pretty tidy bit of business.
Jake DeBrusk slots in as a top-six scorer who’s expected to line up with Elias Pettersson. He can play both wings and has a gritty component to his game, just like down-the-lineup acquisitions Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood.
Sherwood, 29, was a buzz-saw for the Nashville Predators in their first-round series against the Canucks, so Allvin was happy to bring him over to their side. Heinen is a local kid who has long been rumored to be looking for an opportunity to play for his hometown team. At 28, he potted 17 goals for the Bruins last year, and he's versatile — something that Allvin coveted.
“I felt, especially in the playoffs there, that we probably didn't have enough options for the coaches to move players around,” he told the media on Monday. “I think in Danton and Pius Suter, both of them are very capable of being players that you can move around in the lineup and play different positions.”
On June 26, Allvin cleared out just over $4 million in cap space and a couple of roster spots by sending Ilya Mikheyev and impending UFA forward Sam Lafferty to the Chicago Blackhawks. He also re-signed two forwards who could have tested free agency after strong seasons in Vancouver — Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger.
On the back end, the popular Zadorov got six years at $5 million from Boston, while Ian Cole signed a one-year deal at $3.1 million in Utah — a slight raise from what he made in Vancouver last season.
Allvin replaced the two big blueliners — with two big blueliners. But he saved himself nearly $5 million in the process.
Vincent Desharnais is a 28-year-old late bloomer who stands 6-foot-7 and signed a two-year deal at $2 million. Derek Forbort, 32 and 6-foot-4, came in at a reasonable $1.5 million for one year.
If those two form a third pair behind 6-foot-8 Tyler Myers, who was re-signed, and 6-foot-5 Carson Soucy, the Canucks will have two formidable duos supporting Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek.
Last season, assistant coaches Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar effectively brought out the best in Vancouver’s blueline group. They helped Hughes win the Norris Trophy as well as supporting players like Myers and even depth defenders Noah Juulsen and Mark Friedman, who also will both be returning.
Allvin hopes that pattern continues with Forbort and, especially, Desharnais.
“Only being, I guess, a full year in the league, I believe — and he believed, too, after talking to Adam and Rick (Tocchet) this morning — that this was a situation where he could develop his game and take a step further,” Allvin said.
In net, Jiri Patera got a similar scouting report from Vancouver goaltending guru Ian Clark. Coming from the Vegas organization, the 25-year-old Czech has just eight NHL games on his resume, but the Canucks see upside.
Patera does require waivers but signed an inexpensive one-year, two-way deal at the league minimum. He'll compete with Arturs Silovs for the Canucks' backup spot after Casey DeSmith, 32, snagged a three-year contract at $1 million a year to back up Jake Oettinger in Dallas.
By minding his money, Allvin filled out his roster without maxxing his cap space — leaving just over $1 million in breathing room according to PuckPedia.
If that holds, and the team can start the season without needing to put Tucker Poolman’s $2.5-million contract on long-term injured reserve, the Canucks will be able to accrue cap space during the season for the first time in years.
That makes it easier to bring in high-end rentals at the trade deadline and, according to Allvin, also helps facilitate in-season call-ups.
“I feel bad for the for the younger players that deserve to get more opportunities,” he said. “When you're not in in LTIR, it gives you a little bit more flexibility of calling up players based on their performance and creating competition up here with the big team.”
If you’re one of the people who was worried about the Canucks not being ‘Canadian’ enough last year, DeBrusk, Heinen and Desharnais do add a little more maple flavor to the roster.
But Vancouver is still very much a United Nations of hockey, with players from the United States, Sweden, Czechia, Latvia, Switzerland and Russia also represented.
Forbort is a Minnesota native and summer workout buddy of Brock Boeser’s, while Sherwood hails from Columbus, Ohio.
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