The Canucks (and the NHL) have been busy the last few days while I’ve been away. The Panthers won the cup, the Canucks made some moves, Quinn Hughes won the Norris, and the NHL draft happened. We’re a few days away from free agency, when all the money flies out the window. A little primer before then:
Signings
- The Canucks signed Teddy Blueger to a two year, 1.8 mil per year contract. A great, savvy move to shore up the 3C position. Blueger played 68 games for the Canucks and tallied 28 points (6G, 22A) as a centre and left winger. His 22 assists set a career high.
“We’re just really happy to be back,” Blueger said. “We did truly love it and had such a fun year. Free agency, going through it last year, I guess it’s exciting. It’s a bit stressful. Last year was our first experience and I was really fortunate to come to Vancouver.”
- Dakota Joshua was re-signed to a four year, 3.25 mil per year contract. This was a huge signing for the Canucks, keeping intact one of the best third lines last year when they were together and re-signing a fan favourite who had a big impact on the season and playoffs. Joshua definitely left some money on the table to stay in Vancouver, but it’s where he wanted to be and the team wanted him back.
“Dakota had a strong season for us and took some big steps forward in his game,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said in a statement. “We really like his size, his speed and physicality. He fit in well with our system and the way we want to play hockey and I look forward to watching him to continue to develop under our coaching staff.”
- Tyler Myers will be back to patrolling the blueline for the Canucks, signing a three year, 3 mil per year contract. It’s a large step back from the contract he was clearly overpaid on, but he reined in his chaos last year and was a consistent defender for the team. Myers will be 37 when the contract ends, so we’ll see how that winds down with his trade protection on it as well.
“Communication was the biggest thing,” Myers said when asked about his own progress this past season. “It felt like we were talking every day. It was all the defencemen, everyone on the team. The communication was constant.
“The feeling of never being satisfied … everyone was trying to get better. That, in itself, created that much more talk within the room and communication from the coaches and players. For me, that provided a lot less guessing going out on the ice.
“I’ve been pretty vocal about how I feel about (the coaching staff) and they were a pretty big part of why I wanted to stay so badly.”
Trade
- Some of these signings were possible as the Canucks got out of the Ilya Mikheyev contract pretty painlessly. They traded Mikheyev, the rights to Sam Lafferty, and a 2027 second rounder to the Blackhawks for a 2027 fourth rounder. The Canucks are retaining 15% of Miky’s contract, but overall it really doesn’t sting much for a team looking to compete now. There were some rumors that San Jose was also interested in the sale deal without retention, but Miky’s trade protection kept him from accepting that destination. Even Drance, known draft pick trader skeptic, was surprised with the trade:
There are some real costs to this deal, but the only notable asset in the trade is the 2027 second-round pick. It’s not nothing — paying a second-rounder to get out of a self-inflicted contractual error is a tough way to do business, especially for a club that hasn’t selected in the first and second rounds of the NHL Draft since 2019 — but the pain of including that asset to shed 85 percent of Mikheyev’s salary is minimized significantly by pushing it that far into the future.
For a Canucks team in a win-now posture, the value lost by trading down four drafts from now is minimal.
The players who will be selected in the second round in 2027 are currently 14 years old — yet to even debut in major junior. They’re realistically the better part of a decade out from contributing to winning hockey games at the NHL level. Meanwhile, the Canucks have ambitions of contending for the Stanley Cup next season.
Liquidating second-round picks to shed past mistakes in unrestricted free agency is usually something I’d criticize, but if you have to do it — and the Canucks felt they had to in Mikheyev’s case — this is just about the most painless possible way to structure the deal.
Norris Winner
- Quinn Hughes won the Norris trophy, becoming the first ever Canucks defenseman to win the award – in his first season as captain no less. Hughes authored a spectacular season, and he ran away with the voting because of it. Hughes upped his game from his already record-setting ways in Canucks colours, attributing that to Tocchet’s system, his defense partner, and his new-found aggressiveness to shoot the puck more.
“I used to just try and shoot around people, but now, I’ll grab the puck and take it two feet this way and put myself in a position to shoot it,” Hughes says, discussing his adaptation as a goal-scoring threat. “It sounds simple, but go look at tape from two years ago and you’ll see that I wasn’t doing that. I was just relying purely on hockey sense.
“I’d get 60-65 assists a year, but now I have a shot mentality, where I’m putting myself and my body and I have the skill set to get shots off while I’m skating.”
UFA and Other
- The Canucks were absent at the draft yesterday as they traded their first rounder this year to Calgary, who took Russian Matvei Gridin with the pick. The Canucks earliest pick (at the moment) is in the third round.
- As the Canucks prep for the UFA market, it seems like Nikita Zadorov will test the waters. The Canucks wanted to re-sign him, but they couldn’t come to a mutual understanding. Maybe they’ll be able to circle back around when Big Z hears other offers, but it’s more likely he’ll get a big payday from another team.
- There are rumours that Guentzel and the Canes have a framework of a contract in place, but things still need to be hammered out. The Canucks have a huge interest in Guentzel, so it would be a blow to their plan A if he gets signed before free agency hits.
- The Canucks circled back to DeSmith's camp on signing the backup goaltender. It was widely considered Silovs would take the backup position next season... so something in management's mind changed. Maybe they want to give Silovs more starts in the AHL? Maybe there's a trade afoot?
I’m sure there will be load more rumours and chatter over the next couple days, so I’ll do my best to post a new blog after all the dust settles. Until then, comments:
Quotes courtesy of The Province and The Athletic.
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