While the Oilers try to pull off a historic comeback in the Stanley Cup Finals, it seems like the rest of the league is ready to move on with their offseasons. A flurry of trades and signings have unfolded the past few days, and the Canucks have tidied up some of their business:

- On Tuesday the Canucks signed their biggest piece of the offseason, inking Filip Hronek to an eight-year extension worth $58 million, which averages out to $7.25 million. It was a tidy piece of business that lets the Canucks know what their cap situation is going to be on the back end for a while down the road. It wasn’t an overpay, it wasn’t a discount. With the cap going up this year (and each subsequent year), it feels like a solid number to lock Hughes’ partner in at. Hronek spoke with the media on Wednesday – a revelation in itself – and talked about his play and his signing.

“It was a fun year for me and I really enjoyed it. There was not much to think about to stay,” he explained.

And on playing with Hughes?

“It’s pretty easy to play with him and I would say we have a good chemistry on and off the ice so it helps too. I’m really excited to keep it going.”

“Everything was natural and we see a lot of things same way and we are able to talk about a lot of stuff even off the ice and on the ice as well, so it’s pretty easy actually. It’s a really good relationship.”

For his play down the stretch, Hronek said he wasn’t hurt (which some people don’t think is true), but did say he lost a lot of strength as the season went on, which is something he will change.

“Make sure I can keep the strongness, like during the whole season, it’s the biggest thing,” he admitted.

- GM Patrick Allvin was happy about getting Hronek locked in. While he helped elevate Hughes’ game to new heights this season, Allvin also thinks there’s more to get out of Hronek.

“There is part of Fillip’s game where we can utilize him more offensively. If that’s by having him with Quinn Hughes or having him running another pair, being the main guy (or) how you utilize him on the powerplay,” the GM said. “But I do think that this was a great experience, learning experience, for Filip playing those meaningful games in the end, getting those 13 playoff games. I believe that he has another level to get to and I believe that he’s capable of getting to another level and finding his consistency more.”

“We as an organization needed to look at your projected roster moving forward here but we felt comfortable with (the) age where Filip is and where we believe his game could go at. And also finding a right shot defenceman at that age and at his quality, made us feel comfortable going into an eighth year,” Allvin added.

However, with the signing, it puts the cap structure more into focus and makes clear they aren’t going to be the same team next year.

“It definitely appears to us here that we’re not going to be able to sign all of them,” Allvin said of all the pending UFAs.

- The Canucks also signed depth defenseman Mark Friedman to a one year $775K contract. It’s a good signing, as Friedman clocked in as the eighth defenseman last year and from all accounts was a solid professional coming in and out of the lineup.

- Allvin also seemed to feel pretty good about the depth of their defense instead of needing to take a big swing for someone else.

“We have Noah Juulsen that is capable playing in the top six, we have Cole McWard knocking on the door, who had a really strong second half in Abbotsford, that I hope is going to have a good summer and come in here and push for a roster spot as well,” he noted.

Zadorov and Myers are the next names up on the defensive re-sign list, so we’ll see over the next 10 days if the Canucks get that done.

Until then, post all the rumours and tidbits in the comments:


(Quotes from Patrick Johnston)

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