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Canucks Promote Yogi Svejkovsky To Assistant Coach

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Jaroslav “Yogi” Svejkovský will join the Canucks’ bench next season as a part of Rick Tocchet’s coaching staff, the team said in a release Wednesday. The former first-round pick of the Capitals fills the role vacated by Mike Yeo, who mutually parted ways with the club last week. The Canucks also said that Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin will take on more responsibility next season from their existing development roles and will have more day-to-day involvement with the NHL and AHL coaching staff.

Svejkovský has been with the Canucks organization for three seasons in skills coaching roles, working with their AHL affiliate in 2021-22 before being promoted to the NHL staff for the past two campaigns. The 17th overall pick in 1996 never managed to stick around as a full-timer in the NHL and had his playing career end at age 24 due to concussions. He finished his major-league career with 23 goals and 42 points in 113 games with Tampa Bay and Washington across four seasons.

He began his coaching career in the Vancouver area with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants as an assistant in the 2006-07 season and has remained there since. Svejkovský served as an assistant and skills coach through 2018, taking a few years to head coach academy teams in British Columbia before joining the Canucks.

Canucks’ Ian Cole Expected To Test Free Agency

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The Canucks are not expected to come to terms on a new contract with defenseman Ian Cole before he reaches unrestricted free agency next month, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reports.

Cole, 35, is one of four blue-liners headed toward UFA status that Vancouver had on its NHL roster at the end of the season. With Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov positioned as higher-priority targets to re-sign, as well as a big-name pending UFA up front in Elias Lindholm, it’s not terribly surprising to see Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin turn his attention away from Cole over the next few weeks.

That’s not a knock on the season Cole had in British Columbia, though. He may have ended his Canucks tenure with a disappointing stretch of postseason play, but he gave them solid bottom-four minutes throughout the regular season after signing a one-year, $3MM pact in free agency last summer.

A first-round pick of the Blues back in 2007, Cole has settled in as a useful third-pairing or complementary second-pairing shutdown defender for teams as he enters the twilight of his career. He put up two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 78 contests for the Canucks this year, averaging 18:41 per game while doing well to control the majority of quality scoring chances despite playing difficult defensive minutes. Vancouver controlled 53% of expected goals with Cole on the ice at even strength, his third straight season with an xG% above 50.

Now a true journeyman, Cole has suited up for five teams in the past four seasons and could make it a sixth in a few weeks. He’s now eligible for a 35+ contract, allowing a team to sign him for a reduced initial cap hit while awarding him additional compensation via performance bonuses, but they would need to have the cap space to accommodate those bonuses if he hits them to avoid a penalty the following season. Evolving Hockey projects him to land a one-year, $2.5MM commitment on the open market.

Canucks Open Talk With Myers, Hoping To Extend Blueger

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Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that the Edmonton Oilers may need to go through the NHL entry draft with an interim general manager if they don’t extend current GM Ken Holland. If Holland does move on, the Oilers wouldn’t have enough time to conduct a search before the draft later this month and might need to lean heavily on their scouting staff to get them through a busy time of year.

Holland has not signed an extension in Edmonton despite having the team in the Stanley Cup Finals and would be highly sought after if he hits the open market given his resume with both the Oilers and the Detroit Red Wings. Holland has won three Stanley Cups as a general manager and a fourth as assistant general manager and goaltending coach. All four Stanley Cups victories came with the Red Wings.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Edmonton Oilers forward Corey Perry is set to collect an additional $50K in performance bonuses after the Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Finals last night (as per Puck Pedia). Perry’s bonus brings Edmonton’s final penalty for overages this season to $3.55MM which will be added to their cap for next season. The 39-year-old reached another milestone last night becoming the first player in NHL history to reach the Stanley Cup Finals with five different teams, including four times in the last five seasons.
  • David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period writes that the talk of a Tyler Myers extension with the Vancouver Canucks might be a bit premature as the two sides have just started talking about extending their deal. Pagnotta notes that both the Canucks and Myers have an interest in getting an extension done, but the talk surrounding a new contract is “noise” at this point. Myers is coming off his most productive season in Vancouver and reportedly lives in nearby Kelowna during the summer which is certainly part of his desire to stay in British Columbia.
  • Pagnotta adds that the Canucks have interest in bringing back forward Teddy Blueger. The 29-year-old had one of the most productive seasons of his career with Vancouver, posting six goals and 22 assists in 68 games tying his career-high in points with 28. The Riga, Latvia native signed a one-year $1.9MM contract with Vancouver on July 1st, 2023, and provided good value to the Canucks that extended well beyond his offensive contributions. Pagnotta notes that the Canucks plan to circle back to Blueger later in the month, which makes sense given the quality and quantity of pending free agents the team will have to deal with over the next month.

Latest On Martin Necas’ Trade Market

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Martin Nečas’ availability in a potential trade has been one of the dominant early storylines of the 2024 offseason. The Hurricanes have been considering moving his signing rights as contract negotiations with the pending restricted free agent remain in a stalemate, and while there was a sense they may make one last pass at re-signing him with interim GM Eric Tulsky now at the helm temporarily, that seems unlikelier with each passing day.

To that end, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli said on the site’s podcast today that a Nečas trade may come over the wire as soon as this week. Previously, we’ve covered reports that the Canucks, Flames and Canadiens have displayed some level of interest in his services. Recently, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period confirmed that at least 12 teams have Nečas “on their radar” and added the Flyers, Kraken and Predators to the existing list of teams that have dictated their interest to Carolina.

Notably, no single team has been named a frontrunner throughout the reporting process over the last few weeks. It’s also been quiet about what the Hurricanes might be able to get in return for their 2017 12th-overall pick, who has 52 goals and 124 points in 159 games since the 2022-23 season.

Nečas, 25, still has another offseason of RFA status ahead of him, but it’s clear he wants to ink a long-term deal this summer. Contract projection models indicate his value is likely in the $7.5MM area on a max-term deal, a figure the Hurricanes don’t seem willing to oblige with the younger Seth Jarvis surpassing him on the depth chart and also needing a new deal this summer. They have a multitude of UFAs to try to retain this summer as well, including one of the best forwards available in Jake Guentzel, who Pagnotta also reported Monday will likely test the market next month before deciding whether to return to Carolina.

Evening Notes: Myers, Graves, Alfredsson

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Ben Kuzma of The Vancouver Province writes that Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers is hoping to re-sign with the Canucks and remain in Vancouver. The 34-year-old had his best season in Vancouver, playing in a reduced role that saw him average less than 20 minutes per game for the first time in his career. The reduced playing time benefitted Myers and he posted five goals and 24 assists in 77 games which were his best numbers since his last year in Winnipeg back in 2018-19.

Kuzma writes that Myers is projected for a $3MM AAV on a three-year deal which would be much more palatable than the $6MM that Myers made this past season. If the Canucks can lock Myers up around that number it will allow them to pivot to their remaining free-agent defenseman Ian Cole, Filip Hronek, and Nikita Zadorov.

In other evening notes:

  • After a poor first season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ryan Graves became a lightning rod for criticism from fans of the team. Dan Kingerski writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins would be best to avoid buying out the remaining five years of the contract which would lead to an annual cost of $750K for the next ten years. Penguins’ general manager Kyle Dubas has stated in the past that he prefers trades to buyouts and given the season that Graves just had it would be nearly impossible to find a trade partner unless the Penguins agree to take back a bad contract. The Penguins have a need for a top-6 forward as well as some depth scoring on their bottom two lines and have just under $13MM in available cap space. Moving Graves would go a long way to opening up the room to maneuver, but given the circumstances, it seems likely that he will be with the team next season.
  • Ottawa Senators great Daniel Alfredsson is leaning towards returning to his assistant coaching role next season under new head coach Travis Green (as per Bruce Garrioch). The franchise’s all-time leading scorer was brought back to the franchise in a player-development role, but that role was changed when the Senators relieved previous head coach D.J. Smith of his duties. The Senators will have to fill out their coaching staff and have been linked to former NHL head coach Mike Yeo as well as former NHLer and current Manitoba Moose assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner.

Latest On Dakota Joshua

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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.

Optimism That Canucks And Tyler Myers Can Work Out Extension

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Defenseman Tyler Myers is one of Vancouver’s many notable pending unrestricted free agents but that might not be the case for much longer.  In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted that there is optimism that the Canucks will be able to work something out with the blueliner.  Myers has spent the last five seasons in Vancouver after inking a $30MM deal with them back in 2019.  He struggled in a prominent role but found some traction in more limited minutes this season, notching 29 points in 77 games along with 136 blocks and 110 hits in just under 19 minutes a night.  It’s safe to say that a new agreement for the 34-year-old won’t reach the $6MM mark but half that on a multi-year deal could be double.

Free Agent Focus: Vancouver Canucks

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Free agency is now just a bit more than a month away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free-agent situation for the Canucks.

Key Restricted Free Agents

D Filip Hronek – Talk about an ideal contract year. After an injury-plagued stint in Vancouver to end last season following his acquisition from the Red Wings, Hronek began the season on the team’s top defense pairing alongside Quinn Hughes and never looked back. He recorded career highs with 43 assists, 48 points and a +33 rating, although, as critics point out, most of that production came on an early-season tear. The 26-year-old had three assists in 16 games after the trade deadline and was limited to a goal and an assist in 13 postseason games, both coming in Games 6 and 7 of their second-round loss to the Oilers. With reports indicating his ask is in the $8MM neighborhood annually, the Canucks are likely to shop his signing rights around with an unwillingness to dole out that kind of cash with the way he ended his season.

G Arturs Silovs – A couple of months ago, Silovs wouldn’t have had anything to do with a “key restricted free agents” moniker after serving as the club’s AHL starter for most of the campaign. However, injuries to Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith forced him into action for Game 4 of the first round against the Predators, and the 23-year-old Latvian remained in the crease for the rest of their playoff run. While Demko would have been an upgrade if available, Silovs was serviceable, posting a .898 SV%, one shutout and allowed 0.2 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck. After posting a .898 SV% and 6-2-1 record in nine regular-season appearances over the last two seasons, he’s in line for a cheap deal to make him Demko’s full-time backup moving forward. Silovs, who led Latvia to a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championship, had a 2.74 GAA, .907 SV%, four shutouts and a 16-11-6 record in 34 games for AHL Abbotsford this season.

Other RFAs: D Nick Cicek, D Filip Johansson, F Linus Karlsson, F Aidan McDonough, D Cole McWard, D Jett Woo

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Ian Cole – While Cole had some notable individual blunders in the playoffs, he had a solid regular season in Vancouver that proved he’s still a fringe top-four blue liner as he enters his mid-30s. Much like his showing last season with the Lightning, he was a strong shutdown force, controlling 53% of expected goals at 5-on-5 despite 63.6% of his zone starts coming in the defensive end. Adding 11 points in 78 games as well, Cole is in line for a deal similar to the one-year, $3MM pact that brought him to the Canucks last summer. He turned 35 in February, so he can take a 35+ contract with performance bonuses to lower his cap hit artificially if Vancouver wants to bring him back but runs out of space. However, if he meets his performance bonuses and the Canucks can’t afford to accommodate them, they’ll be applied as a cap penalty in 2025-26.

F Dakota Joshua – A Maple Leafs draft pick back in 2014, Joshua has been on a steady rise since they moved his rights to the Blues shortly before the pandemic. He parlayed that into an everyday role with the Canucks upon reaching Group Six UFA status in 2022 and had a career year this season, posting 18 goals and 32 points in only 63 games while costing just $825K against the cap. He averaged solid third-line minutes at 14:23 per game and had nearly all of his production come at even strength, notching only one power-play point. The 28-year-old had positive relative possession numbers, too. Unfortunately, that means he’s one of the likelier candidates to have priced himself out of Vancouver, earning himself a multi-million dollar raise wherever he signs this summer.

F Elias Lindholm – The Canucks gave up quite a haul for Lindholm at the end of January, giving the Flames a large package that included a first-round pick and middle-six sniper Andrei Kuzmenko to acquire the 2022 Selke Trophy finalist. His performance in the regular season left much to be desired, potting only six goals and 12 points in 26 games after the deal. Still, he exploded back to form in the postseason with 10 points and a +4 rating in 13 games while logging nearly 20 minutes a night, tying for third on the club in scoring. That’s likely repaired a good chunk of his market value after having an extremely underwhelming contract year. After finishing the campaign with 44 points and a -14 rating in 75 games, he won’t command the upward of $8MM per season he left on the table for an extension in Calgary, but he should still get something in the $6MM-$7MM annually on a longer-term deal. Whether that comes in Vancouver or with one of his other expected suitors, namely the Bruins, remains to be seen.

D Tyler Myers – The final season of Myers’ bloated five-year, $30MM deal was his best hockey in Vancouver. He dropped down to a second/third-pairing role, averaging under 20 minutes per game for the first time in his lengthy career, but responded with 29 points and a 49.8% expected goals share at 5-on-5, his best as a Canuck. Vancouver and Myers would both like to see him back in a Canucks uniform next season, something they should be able to get done at a significant pay cut from his previous $6MM cap hit as he enters his age-34 season.

D Nikita Zadorov – Also an in-season trade pickup from Calgary, Zadorov quickly became a fan favorite in Vancouver and was, bar none, their second-best defenseman in the playoffs behind Quinn Hughes. The towering Russian rattled off four goals and eight points in 13 postseason contests, averaging over 20 minutes per game after logging 17:04 per game in the regular season after the trade. Reports indicate his camp is asking for a six-year deal at $6MM annually – likely too rich for the Canucks’ taste (or anybody’s taste, for that matter). If his camp gets the sense that he won’t be able to achieve that figure on the open market, it wouldn’t surprise anybody to see this generation’s Big Z end up back in Vancouver.

Other UFAs: F Teddy Blueger, G Casey DeSmith, F Sheldon Dries, D Mark Friedman, D Matt Irwin, F Sam Lafferty, G Zach Sawchenko

Projected Cap Space

The Canucks enter the summer with roughly $23.75MM in cap space. However,h they’re likely operating with an internal figure closer to $26.25MM with the final season of defenseman Tucker Poolman’s contract slated for long-term injured reserve again in 2024-25. It’s a solid chunk of change – they’re still below the $64.7MM floor for next season – but the space will disappear quickly as they have likely $13-15MM committed to either re-signing Hronek and Lindholm or for their replacements.

Take another $5MM out for what Zadorov will likely command for an extension at this stage, and it’s clear not everyone on this list will be back next season. They have a solid chance of retaining most of their expiring talent, but whether they want to pay market value for someone like Lindholm or look for a more undervalued replacement on the open market remains to be seen. Expect General Manager of the Year Award finalist Patrik Allvin to be one of the busier GMs this offseason as he navigates what could be a fair amount of roster turnover for the defending Pacific Division champions.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Vancouver Canucks, Mike Yeo Mutually Part Ways

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  • The Vancouver Canucks have mutually parted ways with assistant coach Mike Yeo according to a team announcement. The news comes as a bit of a shock as Yeo oversaw the transformation of a Canucks’ penalty kill unit that dramatically improved one of the league’s worst penalty kill in just one year. Nevertheless, Vancouver may be allowing Yeo to pursue other options as he looks to find a head coaching role in the NHL once again.

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Canucks Name Manny Malhotra AHL Head Coach

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The Vancouver Canucks have named Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Manny Malhotra as the next head coach of the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. Malhotra replaces Jeremy Colliton, who served in two seasons with Abbotsford, leading the team to two identical seasons – two 40-25-7 records and first-round exits. Abbotsford associate coach Gary Agnew will also be stepping away from the club after three seasons (Twitter link).

Malhotra’s experience in the NHL kicked off with his seventh-overall selection by the New York Rangers in the 1998 NHL Draft – a part of a top 15 that also featured Vincent Lecavalier, David Legwand, and Alex Tanguay. Malhotra would go on to play in 991 career games across 18 seasons and seven teams. He spent three-or-more seasons with four different teams, including the Vancouver Canucks, who he appeared in 159 games with between 2010 and 2013. Malhotra was never a strong scorer, with a measly career-high of 35 points posted in the 2008-09 campaign, but his intangibles are what made him distinct. He was a defensive specialist and boasted a dazzling 59.7 percent on faceoffs in the final eight years of his career – dating back to when the stat was first tracked.

Teams were eager to bring those traits behind the bench when Malhotra announced his retirement in the 2015-16 season. He didn’t wait long to kick off his coaching career as a result, joining Vancouver as an assistant coach in the 2017-18 season. He’d stay in Vancouver until 2020 when he moved east to join Toronto. Malhotra will now assume an Abbotsford lineup full of potential, largely thanks to the trio of top prospects Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Aatu Raty, and Danila Klimovich. Vancouver has made it clear that they want to offer the chance for prospects to crack the NHL lineup next season, though it will be Malhotra in charge of developing the ones who don’t make it.

Meanwhile, former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Colliton is back on the market after a pair of seasons in the minor leagues. Colliton became the youngest head coach since 1995 when he took over the Blackhawks in 2018, at the precise age of 33 years and 299 days. He was highly praised at the time, but quickly lost steam after totaling a 86-83-24 record over three seasons in Chicago. He hasn’t returned to an NHL role since, though that could be poised to change soon, with San Jose reportedly already engaging the AHL bench-leader. He becomes one of many coaches looking for new roles – joining a list of free agents now headlined by Todd McLellan, Dean Evason, and Jay Woodcroft.

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