Having a strong off-season is crucial for the Vancouver Canucks. After a problematic 2024-25 campaign that ended without playoffs, all eyes will be on Canucks management as they look to get the team back on track. Ultimately, the organization can not afford any misses during the 2025 off-season, as it could lead to a disappointing 2025-26 season.
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While there are a few ways Vancouver can improve, it appears that the organization's focus is on trades. During an interview on "Sportsnet 650," President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford revealed that improving through the trade market may be the Canucks' best bet this off-season. While Rutherford made it clear that they are going to consider all options, he also pointed out that they don't want to drain the prospect pool for short-term success.
"We'll be aggressive," said Rutherford. "We're certainly not going to be desperate. The organization has done a good job of building up the pipeline now. We have more younger players here over the last couple of years. We feel good about the young defencemen we have coming. We have some young forwards coming. But if we can make a deal and do whatever we need to do to improve our team, we're going to do it. We're not going to end up trading all our young guys or all our draft picks or things like that, but we're going to be open to all options to make this team better."
One of the strengths of Vancouver's organization is the young depth they have acquired on the blue line. Tom Willander, Elias Pettersson and Victor Mancini all look ready to compete for a spot on next year's roster, while Sawyer Mynio and Kirill Kudryavtsev are prospects who could be ready in a few years. According to Rutherford, the Canucks have already received calls on some of the young defensemen who could be used as trade chips this off-season.
"Yes, teams are aware that we have depth on defence. Patrick gets calls on them. We would be very careful if to what defenseman we may trade if any. You know, we have them prioritized, of course, like all teams do, but that is an area where we could possibly move somebody to improve our forwards."
Lastly, Rutherford discussed some of the challenges in this year's free agent market. While there are some notable unrestricted free agents like Mitch Marner, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Sam Bennett, the free agent pool is considered shallow compared to previous seasons. As Rutherford explained, external factors could also come into play when trying to sign some of these high-end free agents.
Offer Sheet Tiers The Vancouver Canucks Qualify For During The 2025 Off-Season
The 2025 off-season could be the summer of offer sheets. With a shallow unrestricted free agent class, teams around the league could be looking at some restricted free agents to help improve their roster for the 2025-26 season. NHL organizations may also be more willing to hand out this type of contract, considering how well it worked out for the <a href="http://thn.com/stlouis">St. Louis Blues</a> this year.
"Well, we prefer to do it in the free agent market, but how many players are going to be available? Most teams have cap space now, and so it's going to be very competitive. I suggested that it's probably going to be through the trade market for us to upgrade the team, because that's one thing that we can control. We can't control free agency. We can't control who wants to come here. We can't control that some other team might want to pay a million or $2 million over market value for a player. We're going to be in the free agent market if we still have cap space at that time and do our best to pick up a player or two, but we may get our work done before that, if players come along that we think can improve our team and we'll trade for them."
Based on Rutherford's comments, Vancouver is going to be very active this off-season. In addition to their prospect poll, they also have seven picks in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, which could easily be moved before the end of June. While it is still unclear exactly who is being moved, fans can expect changes to the roster ahead of the 2025-26 season.
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