Canucks: What they’re saying ahead of the NHL draft and free agency

Article content

A round-up of news and notes on your Vancouver Canucks, a day ahead of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft

Article content

Canucks still interested in Jake Guentzel

This one is no surprise. We’ve known for a while now that the Canucks are keen on the former Penguin.

But the price to sign him will be high, certainly a maximum-term deal of seven years, and likely upwards of $9 million per season, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun suggests.

There are, obviously, lots of Guentzel-Canucks connections already. His agent is Ben Hankinson, who represents Brock Boeser and Teddy Blueger as well. Of course the team’s management knows Guentzel well from when they were all together in Pittsburgh.

One team source has expressed strong confidence this gets done.

But Guentzel’s talents are widely coveted. He’s going to see a lot of offers.

And a league source suggested that tax considerations could indeed come in to play. Not necessarily as a deal-breaker, but a simple reality of how much he’d net in one jurisdiction compared to another.

Article content

Elliotte Friedman suggested that the deal Carolina is floating would be eight years at $8 million per season. Friedman said he understood that this was what Guentzel was after from Carolina.

But it must be said that Carolina is a very tough situation to read, because their owner Tom Dundon is very involved in the financial decisions there. He trusts his hockey people to deliver, but he still drives a hard bargain on spending.

Could Chris Tanev come home?

TSN’s Darren Dreger suggested what we all think: if Chris Tanev doesn’t re-sign in Dallas, he’ll surely have interest from Vancouver. And you know Tanev would be keen to return — but he’ll have strong offers elsewhere.

Article content

Article content

LeBrun suggested the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators are both keen to sign the defenceman; obviously Toronto GM Brad Treliving signed Tanev away from Vancouver to Calgary four years ago, while the Senators under new GM Steve Staios are keen to stabilize their roster and push forward.

CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal says Guentzel and Tanev are the first two names on the Canucks’ priority list for Monday, when free agency opens.

Article content

An RFA?

Rink Wide’s Irfaan Gaffar has said more than once he thinks the Canucks have had their eyes on a restricted free agent.

Here’s a handful of RFA defencemen that interest me: Timothy Liljgren, Erik Brannstrom, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Henri Jokiharju and Dylan Coghlan.

What about a centre?

Could Alex Texier somehow be sprung from Columbus? Surely Dawson Mercer or Anton Lundell are too pricey.

Hometown kid?

The Athletic’s Thomas Drance suggested Sam Reinhart Thursday as a possible alternative to Guentzel.

Intriguingly, I’d heard him mentioned as a possibility earlier in the day and did muse about him on Sekeres and Price, but figured the price tag on Reinhart — likely $10 million or more — would prove to be too high.

Article content

And after about 12 hours of talking about him — it seems he’s off the market. St. Louis reporter Andy Strickland reported Friday that Reinhart — plus teammate Carter Verhaeghe — would re-sign with the Florida Panthers.

Article content

Reinhart as a potential option for the Canucks made some sense: he’s a high-scoring, talented, two-way winger who would do a lot of the things that Guentzel does. And he’s a year younger.

Zadorov out

Nikita Zadorov’s time as a Canuck will be legendary, no matter what. His performance in the playoffs thrilled the fans, his teammates, even management.

But in the end it seems he priced himself out of the Canucks’ budget. GM Patrik Allvin acknowledged Friday that the big blueliner will hit free agency Monday after he and Zadorov’s agent Dan Milstein failed to agree on a new contract.

“I can’t overpay one single player,” Allvin said, flatly, before praising Zadorov’s play in the playoffs and his high character.

Mikheyev deal an odd one

Article content

What, exactly, was Chicago doing in this deal? Sure, they got an under-contract winger in Mikheyev who will help them get to the salary floor and who at least won’t hurt them defensively, but the only price they extracted from the Canucks was a trade-up for a draft that’s three years away.

And, for some reason, the rights to pending unrestricted free agent Sam Lafferty.

The Canucks got off almost all of a contract that they didn’t want.

They clearly won the trade and Chicago didn’t make them pay, really, at all.

That said, at least Chicago doesn’t look as silly as Detroit’s Steve Yzerman now does, after Detroit reporter Sean Shapiro found that the San Jose Sharks were ready to make a waiver claim on Luke Walman — but instead Yzerman offered them a second-round pick for their troubles.

Article content

As a league source said to me after the Mikheyev trade: “The thing about cap management is that even when you screw up there’s always a sucker ready to help you get unscrewed.”

pjohnston@postmedia.com

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.

Article content