Latest On Dakota Joshua

Canucks forward Dakota Joshua could be one of the more appealing depth scoring options on the free agent market if he doesn’t sign an extension before July 1. While both he and the team have expressed a willingness to get a new deal across the finish line, they’re not close to an agreement with one month until July 1, Rick Dhaliwal said on CHEK’s “Donnie & Dhali” earlier this week.

Negotiations with all of Vancouver’s pending free agents will likely be stuck in the mud until one of them takes a massive leap forward. General manager Patrik Allvin has one of the longest offseason to-do lists in the league. He has plenty of notable players on expiring deals. A lack of cost certainty for any of them makes it difficult to know how far they’re willing to go to retain any individual.

On the open market for the second time in his career, the breakout winger had 32 points in 63 contests for the ’Nucks this season, a 42-point pace had he played in all 82. He backed that up with strong possession numbers while averaging 14:23 per game, the highest usage of his four-year, 184-game career.

A late bloomer, Joshua is unlikely to take much of a further step forward at age 28, but he’s not afraid to lay the body and has fully established himself as a capable, versatile middle-six forward. He averaged 1:50 per game on Vancouver’s penalty kill this year and boasted positive relative possession results (0.5 relative CF%) in the process. Evolving Hockey projects a conservative two-year, $2MM AAV deal on the open market, likely due to his lack of experience, but few would be surprised if he lands nearly twice that figure.

That wide range of possible deals makes it difficult for Allvin to commit, considering he also needs to save funds to re-sign or replace top-six center Elias Lindholm and most of his defense corps, including Ian Cole, Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov. The Canucks have $23.75MM in projected cap space with up to eight open roster spots, CapFriendly projects.

One team that could come calling if Joshua is available come July 1 is the Maple Leafs. They selected him 128th overall in 2014 but traded his signing rights to the Blues before getting him under contract.

If so, he’d be open to signing this time around, James Mirtle of The Athletic said during a podcast appearance Thursday. He’d be a logical fit to replace Tyler Bertuzzi in their top nine if they can’t manage to extend him before free agency opens.