The Vancouver Canucks begin training camp on Friday ahead of a big season with big expectations. Their young core led by Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser is hoping to turn things around push the Canucks into a playoff spot in the Pacific Division. There’s only one thing wrong with that picture—Boeser still doesn’t have a contract. The 22-year old won’t be with the club on Friday without one, and Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet reports that the two sides are still not close to a deal, with a big salary gap even on a short-term deal.
Boeser, who has scored 59 goals through the first 140 games of his career, is absolutely paramount to the Canucks’ chances this season. Though the team has added talent like J.T. Miller, Micheal Ferland and Tyler Myers, no one can match Boeser’s pure goal-scoring ability and perfect fit with Pettersson on the top line. His 39 even-strength goals over the last two seasons puts him ahead of other wingers like Patrik Laine, Mitch Marner and Phil Kessel and he ranks 25th in the entire league for goals (of any variety) per game over that time.
The question will be how the two sides finally structure the deal to provide Boeser with the best financial opportunity. There have been reports earlier this year that had the player asking for a number somewhere in the vicinity of $7MM per season, but it would be difficult for the Canucks to fit that in at the moment given their other cap commitments—this is where Roberto Luongo’s recapture penalty is really squeezing GM Jim Benning and the rest of the front office. A comparable player in Timo Meier signed at the beginning of the summer for $24MM over four years, but loaded $10MM of that in salary at the end so that his qualifying offer would be that high in his final year of restricted free agency. The Canucks may not want to do something like that and provide a roadmap for Boeser to get to UFA status so easily, but obviously there is a substantial gap still on shorter-term deals.
It is important to note that unlike other restricted free agents that have played three full seasons on their entry-level contracts, Boeser is not eligible for an offer sheet thanks to making his NHL debut at the end of the 2016-17 season after coming out of college. He only has two options at this point, hold out or sign a deal with the team, since he’s also not arbitration eligible. Boeser must sign before December 1st in order to be eligible to play at all this year.
Benning’s weird deal with Luongo 2 years ago and playing elsewhere still gonna cost the Canucks for a few years. might suggest that they figure how to unload the contract of Loui Eriksson and get some of that $6 million back , and maybe find a way to get rid of possibly Tanev’s or Beagle’s contracts then that will allow them to get Boeser signed , Benning is gonna be without Boeser in possible contract holdout and will plummet them into a lottery pick next year thou luckily has helped in getting Pettersson and Hughes, Or is that what Benning is trying to do is , get a high draft pick and send Canuck’s into crapper , without Boeser that is what will happen, hopefully him signing before camp gets other free agents to get deals done . Hopefully , but with Benning very doubtful. What’s Benning’s contract ? hopefully owner will wake up and dump Benning. Get rid of Eriksson.
Benning got extended this winter. I’m very surprised Eriksson and Puljujaarvi weren’t traded from their respective teams. They had months to find a fit.
Square pegs, round holes…no fit. For either of them… Myers’ overpay did not help. Teams need to realize they might as well go for a semi-team-friendly escalated bridge deal, and either pay the player or let him walk. More and more RFAs are getting fed up with their teams and their perceived fiscal mismanagement. Things will get more stinky in the coming years…
Long season for McAvoy, Marner, Point, Boeser ,M. Tkachuk, and many other big names if things don’t get going camps opening very soon , season opener just around corner.
C’mon, Gerald! You can’t wait to see the unfolding carnage, just like me!