Offseason Checklist: Vancouver Canucks

The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those already eliminated through the first couple of rounds.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Vancouver.

While there were some questions about the Canucks heading into the season despite a solid showing in 2023-24, this past season was a strange one.  From struggles to injuries to in-fighting, the team never found its footing, missed the playoffs, and couldn’t come to terms with Rick Tocchet on a contract extension, leading to a coaching change with Adam Foote being promoted into the top job.  Even with that item checked off, GM Patrik Allvin has some work to do in the coming months.

Add Impact Center

With the J.T. Miller situation coming to a head midseason, the Canucks were able to get a center back as part of the return in Filip Chytil.  But with all due respect to Chytil, the two players are at considerably different levels.  One has been a recent top liner, the other more of a middle-six piece with a concerning concussion history.   If they were mapping out more of their ideal center situation, Chytil would probably head into next season as a third liner.  They have Elias Pettersson locked up long-term (more on him shortly) but there’s still a need for a top-six middleman.

In terms of internal options, Aatu Raty should be a full-time NHL player soon but he’s more of a bottom-six option himself.   Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger are capable bottom-six pieces but don’t produce enough to be a top-six piece.  Pius Suter acquitted himself quite well this season and stepped into a bigger role, scoring 25 goals.  However, he’s a pending unrestricted free agent and his market should be much stronger than it was two years ago when the Canucks got him on a low-cost deal that proved to be quite the bargain.  Basically, there is no internal option beyond hoping Chytil can stay healthy and find a level he has yet to reach offensively.

Team president Jim Rutherford suggested earlier this month that the team might look to get the bulk of its spending done before free agency opens up.  Accordingly, they may be intending on trying to acquire another middleman via a trade, a lofty goal considering few impact centers are typically made available.  Unless the Canucks are looking to make another core-shaking swap, they may have some difficulty finding a fit in a trade.

The good news is that, at least for now, the UFA market down the middle is a bit deeper than usual.  There are short-term options like John Tavares and Claude Giroux on expiring deals.  Matt Duchene, Brock Nelson, Mikael Granlund, and Ryan Donato could plausibly command multi-year agreements though nothing overly long-term.  Sam Bennett will land a lucrative long-term deal that probably won’t age the greatest but he’s out there too.  It’s never easy to add a key center but the free agent route may make more sense for them to go here.

Examine Pettersson Options

Having just gone over how Vancouver already needs one top-six center, it feels a little counterintuitive to suggest they also need to look into their options with the one top-sixer they have in Pettersson.  But after the way his season went, it feels like this is something they have to look into.

The 26-year-old signed an eight-year, $92.8MM contract in early March 2024, the first season of which is now in the books.  At the time he signed the deal in 2024, he had 75 points in 62 games, a pace that would have given him a shot at a second straight 100-point season.  After that point, he limped to the finish line with just 14 points in his final 20 outings.

Unfortunately for him and the Canucks, that proved to be a sign of things to come.  This season was nothing short of disastrous.  On the ice, Pettersson put up the lowest full-season point total of his career with only 15 goals and 30 assists in 64 games.  Effectively, he was giving them second-line numbers while playing top-line minutes and making $11.6MM, making him one of the top-paid pivots in the NHL.  And, of course, there was the off-ice issue of his feud with Miller that ultimately led to the veteran being moved away while the distraction seemed to linger all season long, even after the trade.

While Pettersson’s value is far from its peak (given the contract, it might be at its worst), Allvin will still likely look into what options might exist.  As players who aren’t UFA-eligible aren’t eligible for trade protection, Pettersson still has another month and a bit without any sort of restrictions until July 1st at which point, a full no-move clause kicks in for the life of the contract.  At that point, dealing Pettersson would become harder with his ability to veto deals, something that isn’t the case for the next five weeks and change.  Getting them to retain significant salary is unlikely with seven years left on the contract but if there’s a big shakeup option out that would see them get an impact center back as part of the return, it would behoove them to look into it at the very least.

Replace Boeser

The last few months have been a little strange when it comes to winger Brock Boeser.  He looked like a strong candidate to be moved before the trade deadline with Vancouver being out of the playoff picture and the two sides not close on an extension but a move never materialized.  Allvin then took the rare step of admitting that the offers for the pending UFA were not particularly strong, a decision that some interpreted as trying to push back against a higher asking price from Boeser’s camp.

Then, at the end of the season when pending free agents generally at least say they’d like to return, Boeser stated that it was unlikely that would happen, suggesting he fully intends to hit the open market.  While there’s still time for things to change on that front – Allvin suggested as much recently – that doesn’t seem likely to happen.  Accordingly, this is an instance where the focus is likelier to shift to replacing the 28-year-old, not re-signing him.

Vancouver enters the offseason with around $16.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.  With no impactful restricted free agents to deal with and a handful of roster spots to fill (including a spot or two on the back end), they have enough flexibility to make at least one addition of note.  However, if their big add is down the middle, they might not be able to aim at a player in Boeser’s tier to replace him, one that’s likely to cost somewhere around the $8MM mark which might take Nikolaj Ehlers off the table.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Canucks are looking for someone more around the $5MM range, allowing them to spend a bit of money on those final spots on the back end.  Options around that price point could include Kyle Palmieri, Jonathan Drouin, Patrick Kane, and former Canuck Andrei Kuzmenko.  To be able to afford that top tier on the wing, they’d likely have to commit to re-signing Suter as their other center before getting to July 1st.  Otherwise, who they bring in probably won’t be as good as the winger they’ll be losing.

Demko Extension Talks

This was a tough season for goaltender Thatcher Demko.  His injury from the playoffs lingered, resulting in him missing the first two months of the season and getting a pretty light workload beyond that point as he made just 23 starts.  The 29-year-old also posted a career-low .889 SV% while Kevin Lankinen, brought in early in training camp as insurance, wound up getting a five-year extension in-season, cementing him as part of the plans moving forward.

Demko is entering the final season of his contract next season and considering the year he just had, it would make sense for both sides to see how 2025-26 plays out or at least starts before entertaining the idea of an extension.  However, Rutherford made a point of saying back in April (video link) that it’s something they intend to look into:

We would like to extend him. It’s going to be a matter of how much risk is the team willing to take and how much risk is he willing to take as to the term of that contract.

Going into this season, Demko’s contract looked like a team-friendly one.  Signed at a $5MM price tag and coming off a year as a Vezina runner-up, it looked like he could be heading toward top-end territory.  Based on recent comparables, that would push his AAV past the $8MM mark on a long-term deal.  But with the uncertainty around his injury and the year he just had, Demko isn’t in a spot to command that.

While Rutherford expressed optimism that a different approach to training should help keep Demko healthy moving forward, this feels like a case where they’d likely prefer a shorter-term agreement.  Speculatively, it wouldn’t be shocking if their target price point was around the current one, keeping their combined goalie spending around the $10MM mark.  Unless Demko is worried about his struggles carrying over, it would be surprising to see something get done here but considering it’s a stated goal of the organization to work on this summer, it warrants the final spot on this list.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports.