Free agent Jack Roslovic’s waiting game may have cost him a potential contract offer from one team. The Canucks have “cooled off on pursuing” the top remaining UFA, writes The Athletic’s Thomas Drance.
There were talks between the Canucks and Roslovic’s camp last month, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic said at the time, leaving them as one of a small list of confirmed suitors. It wasn’t without precedent, either. Vancouver had approached Roslovic last summer as well, before he ended up taking a one-year, $2.8MM contract with the Hurricanes.
That deal saw him tie his career-high of 22 goals in 81 games while also seeing more time at center than he did in 2023-24, likely sparking some optimism that he could help fill out the Canucks’ underwhelming depth down the middle. Nonetheless, it appears Vancouver’s braintrust has now pivoted to only pursuing long-term solutions to supplement anchor Elias Pettersson and, ideally, injury-prone but high-ceiling Filip Chytil in a top-nine role.
“Vancouver is still in the market to land a centre, but the trade market is viewed as a more likely and realistic route of addressing the club’s greatest remaining need,” Drance said. “Vancouver would execute a trade today if the deal returned a credible middle-six centre — even if that centre had more of a defensive bent to their game.”
The Canucks still have $3.27MM in cap space left to facilitate a deal, per PuckPedia.
As for Roslovic, he’s getting into crunch time with only one-year deals and PTOs available for most everyone at this point of the offseason. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in early August that there were five teams with legitimate interest in him but that he was taking his time to make a decision.
Even with that intrigue and proven top-nine capability without much risk of regression – he’s still just 28 years old – a multi-year pact may simply be out of reach for him at this point. At the beginning of the summer, AFP Analytics projected him to receive a three-year deal worth north of $4MM per season. With the way the market has broken, though, he might need to settle for another one-year deal at a comparable value to last year’s $2.8MM cap hit.
Is he Klingbergging himself?
I like Roslovic he’s a good goal scorer though not great. What is he holding out for. He’s not getting a 7×7. He’s either priced himself out of work or he’s playing a game that’s gonna land him in the KHL. Either way it’s time for him to pull the trigger.
Get ready to learn Russian buddy
Jack isn’t that good, he’s unreliable at both ends. While 5 teams may be interested, my guess is at league minimum- 1mill. And play in the bottom 6 on the wing, he is not a center and has proven it time and time again. The ugly CBJ/Winnipeg trade looks worse and worse by the day for CBJ, atleast Winnipeg got 2 solid players for Dubois.
Happens every year. There are only so many slots to go around, so much cap space to go around, and there are always a handful of players who get caught out in the game of Musical Chairs when the music stops. You’d think they’d learn.
Who’s his agent?