Canucks News, Rumours, and & Fantasy GM | Some Like it Hot

[Vector]

Here’s my spreadsheet for upcoming UFAs, each team’s cap situation, and a trade tracker. I update the spreadsheet daily. I use CapFriendly to create this list and AFP Analytics for the contract projections.

Edit: Spreadsheet has been updated with AFP's latest projections and I added a new section for RFAs.

Spoiler: UFAs By Position

Top-6 Forwards
Sam Reinhart	RW	28	8y/10.25m
Jake Guentzel	W	29	6y/7.94m
Steven Stamkos	LW/C	34	3y/6.30m
Jonathan Marchessault	W	33	3y/6.25m
Joe Pavelski	RW	39	1y/3.94m
Matt Duchene	RW/C	33	3y/6.46m
Sean Monahan	FW	29	3y/2.87m
Tyler Toffoli	W	32	5y/6.53m
Jonathan Drouin	W	29	4y/4.46m
Teuvo Teravainen	W	29	5y/6.13m
Vladimir Tarasenko	RW	32	3y/5.64m
Adam Henrique	LW/C	34	2y/4.60m
Chandler Stephenson	C/LW	30	5y/5.77m
Max Domi	C/RW	29	3y/4.17m
Patrick Kane	RW	35	2y/5.51m
Elias Lindholm	C/RW	29	7y/8.04m
Anthony Mantha	W	29	3y/4.40m
Daniel Sprong	W	27	3y/3.89m
Jake DeBrusk	W	27	5y/5.92m
David Perron	W	36	2y/2.80m
Tyler Bertuzzi	W	29	5y/6.00m
Anthony Duclair	W	28	3y/3.22m
Jason Zucker	W	32	3y/5.46m
Jack Roslovic	C/RW	27	3y/3.11m
Max Pacioretty	LW	35
Alexander Barabanov	W	30	3y/3.03m

Top-4 Defecemen
Shayne Gostisbehere	LD/RD	31	3y/4.38m
Brady Skjei	LD	30	6y/7.39m
Noah Hanifin	LD	27	7y/7.69m
Brandon Montour	RD	30	7y/8.71m
Oliver Ekman-Larsson	LD	32	3y/3.67m
Dylan DeMelo	RD	31	4y/5.07m
Sean Walker	LD/RD	29	4y/4.87m
Matt Roy	RD	29	4y/5.58m
TJ Brodie	LD/RD	34	3y/4.91m
Brenden Dillon	LD	33	2y/3.91m
Alexandre Carrier	RD	27	3y/3.57m
Nikita Zadorov	LD/RD	29	4y/5.10m
Chris Tanev	RD	34	3y/4.68m
Brett Pesce	RD	29	6y/6.72m
Matt Grzelcyk	LD	30	3y/4.07m
Oliver Kylington	LD/RD	27

Bottom-6 Forwards
James van Riemsdyk	W	35	1y/1.50m
Warren Foegele	W	28	4y/3.58m
Stefan Noesen	W	31	2y/3.23m
Danton Heinen	W	28
Tyler Johnson	FW	33
Alexander Wennberg	C	29	4y/4.21m
Jordan Martinook	W	31	2y/2.79m
Dakota Joshua	LW	28	3y/3.00m
Michael Amadio	W	28
Teddy Blueger	C/LW	29	2y/2.56m
Sam Lafferty	FW	29	2y/1.72m
Kiefer Sherwood	W	29
Mike Hoffman	LW	34	1y/1.86m
Tomas Tatar	W	33	1y/2.21m
Kyle Okposo	RW	36	1y/1.96m
Kasperi Kapanen	RW	27
Andrew Cogliano	LW	37
Jakob Silfverberg	W	33	2y/2.78m
Cal Clutterbuck	RW	36
Corey Perry	RW	39
Patrick Maroon	W	36
Yakov Trenin	LW/C	27	3y/3.33m
Dominik Kubalik	W	28	2y/1.34m
Anthony Beauvillier	W	27
Sam Carrick	C/RW	32
Tanner Pearson	LW	31
Zemgus Girgensons	LW/C	30	2y/1.74m
Colin Blackwell	C/RW	31
Brandon Duhaime	W	27
Nick Cousins	LW/C	30
Connor Brown	W	30
Joel Kiviranta	W	28
William Carrier	LW	29	3y/2.68m
Tyler Motte	W	29	3y/2.55m
Samuel Blais	W	28	1y/0.94m
Tyson Jost	C	26

Bottom-Pairing Defencemen
Erik Gustafsson	LD	32	3y/4.99m
Tyler Myers	RD	34	2y/2.67m
Justin Schultz	RD	33	2y/3.81m
Kevin Shattenkirk	RD	35	1y/1.37m
Jalen Chatfield	RD	28	3y/2.77m
Mike Reilly	LD	30	1y/1.24m
Dmitry Kulikov	LD/RD	33
Alec Martinez	LD	36	1y/1.7m
Tyson Barrie	RD	32	2y/3.72m
Jani Hakanpaa	RD	32	2y/2.38m
Vincent Desharnais	RD	28	2y/1.41m
Ian Cole	LD/RD	35	2y/3.09m
Matt Dumba	RD	29	3y/3.73m
Colin Miller	RD	31
Mark Giordano	LD	40	1y/3.11m
Marco Scandella	LD	34
Calvin De Haan	LD/RD	33
Josh Brown	RD	30
Ilya Lyubushkin	RD	30	1y/1.31m
Joel Edmundson	LD/RD	31
Troy Stecher	RD	30
Derek Forbort	LD	32
Erik Johnson	RD	36	1y/1.13m

Forward Depth
Christian Fischer	W	27
Craig Smith	RW	34
Victor Olofsson	W	28
Trevor Lewis	RW/C	37
Justin Bailey	RW	29
Kevin Stenlund	C/RW	27
Jeff Carter	RW/C	39
Ryan Carpenter	RW/C	33
Nicolas Aube-Kubel	RW	28	2y/1.53m
AJ Greer	W	27
Liam O'Brien	W	29
Chris Tierney	C	30
Mattias Janmark	W	31
Sam Gagner	RW/C	34
Brendan Smith	LD/RD	35
Eric Robinson	LW	29
Zach Parise	LW	39
Kevin Labanc	W	28	2y/1.94m
Fredrik Olofsson	C/LW	28
Alex Barre-Boulet	W	27
Matt Martin	W	35
Radim Zohorna	W	28
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare	C/LW	39
Tyler Pitlick	RW	32
Austin Watson	W	32
Tomas Nosek	LW/C	31
Jansen Harkins	LW	27
Rourke Chartier	C	28
Steven Lorentz	FW	28

Defensive Depth
Jack Johnson	LD	37
Vincent Desharnais	RD	28	2y/1.41m
Anthony Deangelo	RD	28	2y/1.80m
Jarred Tinordi	LD	32
Sebastian Aho	LD	28
Dakota Mermis	LD/RD	30
Jacob MacDonald	LD/RD	31
Dennis Gilbert	LD	27
Nikita Zaitsev	RD	32
Nick DeSimone	RD	29
Travis Dermott	LD/RD	27
Caleb Jones	LD/RD	27
Chad Ruhwedel	RD	34
William Lageson	LD/RD	28

Goaltenders
Cam Talbot	G	36	1y/1.89m
Ilya Samsonov	G	27	2y/3.26m
Alex Nedeljkovic	G	28	2y/2.00m
Kaapo Kahkonen	G	27	2y/2.93m
Scott Wedgewood	G	31	2y/1.57m
Casey DeSmith	G	32	1y/2.02m
Anthony Stolarz	G	30	2y/1.91m
James Reimar	G	36
Antti Raanta	G	35	1y/1.31m
David Rittich	G	31
Kevin Lankinen	G	29	1y/1.58m
Laurent Brossoit	G	31	2y/1.95m
Calvin Pickard	G	32
Martin Jones	G	34

Click to read more...

 

[StickShift]

I'd be willing to buyout Kotkaniemi. It's a f***ing long one but that actual cap hit is pretty damn small.

24-25: 0.835m
25-26: 0.835m
26-27: 0.835m
27-28: 0.445m
28-29: 0.445m
29-30: 0.445m
30-31: 0.835m
31-32: 0.835m
32-33: 0.835m
33-34: 0.835m
34-35: 0.835m
35-36: 0.835m

They have up to 2027 to buy-him out at 1/3 the cap-hit.

If they were to trade for him—I imagine they would give him at least one season to prove himself.

 

[ManVanFan]

Easily see why teams are interested in a 23 year old center signed for a 4.8M contract for years. Entering his upside years. Absolutely reminds me of Pavel Zacha. Back to back 50 point seasons for Zacha now after his trade to Boston.

 

[ManVanFan]

Depends what you see as the window + how high you are on Lek. I see the window as now, I’m not that high on Lek, and packaging him with Mikheyev for a true top 6 winger to play with Pettersson while allowing us to retain Joshua and Blueger to play with Garland on the 3rd line is worth it to me. And you may be able to re-sign Ehlers depending on cap increases.

It would be like trading for Lindholm again, giving up a good prospect, cheap contracts for a players that's going to want a raise that the Canucks can't afford because they don't have any good contracts because they keep trading them away for win now and they didn't win.

I'm totally against it but that's just me. This team has enough cap issues.

 

[TruGr1t]

 

[vancityluongo]

As per request by @vancityluongo, here's the list of 27-31 year olds signed to two years or more, with limited trade protection, and on underwhelming teams.

Player	Team	Age	Position	Years	Cap Hit	Clause
Ryan Strome	Ducks	30	RW/C	3	5.0m
Nick Schmaltz	Utah HC	28	RW/C	2	5.85m	10-NTC
Alex Tuch	Sabres	28	W	2	4.75m	5-NTC
Jason Dickinson	Blackhawks	28	C/LW	2	4.25m
Boone Jenner	Blue Jackets	30	C/LW	2	3.75m	8-NTC
J.T. Compher	Red Wings	29	FW	3	5.625m	10-NTC
Andrew Copp	Red Wings	29	C/RW	4	5.1m	10-NTC
Joel Eriksson Ek	Wild	27	C	5	5.25m	10-NTC
Ryan Hartman	Wild	29	C/RW	3	4.0m
Josh Anderson	Canadiens	30	W	3	5.5m	8-NTC
Mathieu Joseph	Senators	27	W	2	2.95m
Scott Laughton	Flyers	29	C/LW	2	3.0m
Michael Bunting	Penguins	28	LW	2	4.5m	10-NTC
Rickard Rakell	Penguins	31	W	4	5.0m	8-NTC
Oliver Bjorkstrand	Kraken	29	W	2	5.4m	10-NTC
Andrew Burakovsky	Kraken	29	W	3	5.5m	10-NTC
Jared McCann	Kraken	27	C/LW	3	5.0m	10-NTC
Brandon Saad	Blues	31	W	2	4.5m	12-NTC
Sonny Milano	Capitals	28	W	2	1.9m
Dylan Strome	Capitals	27	C	4	5.0m

thanks dude - this is perfect!

tons of interesting names here. tuch would be a great winger for miller and boeser. he's coming off of a down year from the previous season, but that's a borderline "team usa" line. would buffalo bite on silovs as a 1b to levi?

would you guys do josh anderson (at least 25% retained) for mikheyev?? the extra year for anderson sucks but i wonder if he's a better fit in the tocchet system... maybe especially if they move on from joshua.

rakell is an interesting option too.

fingers crossed that ken holland to cbj is the final straw for boone jenner and he agrees to a trade. joshua-jenner-garland would be an elite third line.

jee + faber for petey, let's go

 

[JT Milker]

It would be like trading for Lindholm again, giving up a good prospect, cheap contracts for a players that's going to want a raise that the Canucks can't afford because they don't have any good contracts because they keep trading them away for win now and they didn't win.

I'm totally against it but that's just me. This team has enough cap issues.

I think it comes down to whether you think that good prospect will have a material impact on the team’s cup aspirations. I’m not sold on Lekkerimaki, but I wouldn’t trade Willander for pretty much anything.

 

[TruGr1t]

Getting Kotkaniemi and Necas for something around Hronek + Mikheyev makes some sense on our side, then sign one of the RSD (Roy, Pesce, Walker) plus bring back Myers. Lindholm obviously gone in this scenario, and not sure you'd have room for Zadorov at Necas' rumoured contract demands ($7-$7.5M).

 

[JT Milker]

I like Necas, but those two players shouldn’t have remotely similar value.

 

[arttk]

I'd be willing to buyout Kotkaniemi. It's a f***ing long one but that actual cap hit is pretty damn small.

24-25: 0.835m
25-26: 0.835m
26-27: 0.835m
27-28: 0.445m
28-29: 0.445m
29-30: 0.445m
30-31: 0.835m
31-32: 0.835m
32-33: 0.835m
33-34: 0.835m
34-35: 0.835m
35-36: 0.835m

Kot at least have some upside. Could rebound and be a good 3rd line pivot.

 

[StickShift]

Getting Kotkaniemi and Necas for something around Hronek + Mikheyev makes some sense on our side, then sign one of the RSD (Roy, Pesce, Walker) plus bring back Myers. Lindholm obviously gone in this scenario, and not sure you'd have room for Zadorov at Necas' rumoured contract demands ($7-$7.5M).

Feels like a rip-off for Carolina.

Given Carolina's previous interest in Hoglander—I would imagine he would be part of this too.

Hronek, Hoglander, Mikheyev
—for—
Necas, Kotkaniemi​

Vancouver must have an ace up its sleeve for RD. The scarcity on the RD UFA means that Pesce, Tanev, Roy, etc will get paid outsized AAV and term to what they provide. Especially in relation to whatever perceived overpay it would take to re-sign Hronek.

 

[TruGr1t]

Feels like a rip-off for Carolina.

Given Carolina's previous interest in Hoglander—I would imagine he would be part of this too.

Hronek, Hoglander, Mikheyev​

—for—​

Necas, Kotkaniemi​

Vancouver must have an ace up its sleeve for RD. The scarcity on the RD UFA means that Pesce, Tanev, Roy, etc will get paid outsized AAV and term to what they provide. Especially in relation to whatever perceived overpay it would take to re-sign Hronek.

I'm not sure Kotkaniemi has much value, but maybe. I see Necas/Hronek as largely offset, maybe with a slight sweetener. But yeah, we'd likely have to add something to slip Mikheyev in there. I think the bones are there for it to make sense, though you'd have to balance out the sides. One other consideration is that one reason Necas apparently wants out of Carolina is that Brind'Amour won't play him at centre, so acquiring him as a Pettersson linemate may be tricky. I wouldn't be against including Hoglander. The salaries are largely a wash assuming projected contracts work out.

 

[JT Milker]

I'm not sure Kotkaniemi has much value, but maybe. I see Necas/Hronek as largely offset, maybe with a slight sweetener. But yeah, we'd likely have to add something to slip Mikheyev in there. I think the bones are there for it to make sense, though you'd have to balance out the sides. One other consideration is that one reason Necas apparently wants out of Carolina is that Brind'Amour won't play him at centre, so acquiring him as a Pettersson linemate may be tricky. I wouldn't be against including Hoglander. The salaries are largely a wash assuming projected contracts work out.

Necas and Hronek had the same number of 5 v 5 points this year. One of them plays RD on a first pairing and the other is a 2nd line winger that might be allowed to walk to UFA. They do not have similar value.

 

[credulous]

kotkaniemi makes a lot of sense as a target if you assume lindholm is priced out and they're still committed to this 3 centers thing. his contract is pretty reasonable

 

[timw33]

I'd be interested in Arvidsson as an injury bounce back on a shorter term value deal for sure. Have always liked his game.

 

[StickShift]

I'm not sure Kotkaniemi has much value, but maybe. I see Necas/Hronek as largely offset, maybe with a slight sweetener. But yeah, we'd likely have to add something to slip Mikheyev in there. I think the bones are there for it to make sense, though you'd have to balance out the sides. One other consideration is that one reason Necas apparently wants out of Carolina is that Brind'Amour won't play him at centre, so acquiring him as a Pettersson linemate may be tricky. I wouldn't be against including Hoglander. The salaries are largely a wash assuming projected contracts work out.

The reason why I feel Hoglander could be vulnerable is his contract situation.

His counting stats suggest that he is due for a large raise in 2025-26—yet Tocchet doesn't trust him to play more than a dozen minutes a game. It feels like the sort of player that teams will typically trade before they have to pay or walk away.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1793716604196507733

Learning experience for our younger guys, can’t even take a split second off in a playoff shift, drastically different from regular season hockey.

 

[ManVanFan]

The biggest thing about trading Hronek even if the ask is high is that the Canucks will again need to replace a top pair RHD. For how many years they asked players to play further up the line up and it didn't work out. Hronek was good enough in the role, which allowed the rest of the D to play roles better suited to their games.

People that are thinking that 28 minutes of hockey together of Hughes and Zadorov, that Zadorov is going to slide into that role and be good. Might be in for an awakening when it doesn't go as planed for 800 minutes.

 

[vancityluongo]

interesting that it's basically consensus here that pesce is "old", washed up, and a player to stay away from, but chris tanev at 5 years older is the solution. i get why (familiarity + likely contract demands), but if pesce comes at a reasonable price i think i'd take him in a second.

yes, tanev is still a very good player and capable of making big plays (ie. the mcdavid stick in OT) - but he also got straight up bullied by zach hyman on the second goal, and from my viewing of last game, might be getting a bit too much credit for lindell's play as his partner.

what are the chances pesce takes something like a 6x8 via sign-and-trade with carolina? he's already a bit injury prone so maybe they do that with the understanding that he's not playing more than 4-5 years of that contract.

 

[Vector]

Kot at least have some upside. Could rebound and be a good 3rd line pivot.

The problem is he hasn't shown that yet and you're paying him a premium for upside that he's never shown.

 

[Vector]

interesting that it's basically consensus here that pesce is "old", washed up, and a player to stay away from, but chris tanev at 5 years older is the solution. i get why (familiarity + likely contract demands), but if pesce comes at a reasonable price i think i'd take him in a second.

yes, tanev is still a very good player and capable of making big plays (ie. the mcdavid stick in OT) - but he also got straight up bullied by zach hyman on the second goal, and from my viewing of last game, might be getting a bit too much credit for lindell's play as his partner.

what are the chances pesce takes something like a 6x8 via sign-and-trade with carolina? he's already a bit injury prone so maybe they do that with the understanding that he's not playing more than 4-5 years of that contract.

The key points are that Pesce has lost a step and the expectation was that he'd be up for a big long-term contract while Tanev's game hasn't slipped all that much and, prior to the hype of this season, you'd think he get shorter term with a far lower cap hit.

 

[Rotang]

The problem is he hasn't shown that yet and you're paying him a premium for upside that he's never shown.

Agreed, have to say I will be disappointed if our way out of 2 more seasons of Mikheyev is 6 more seasons of Kotkaniemi at a similar cap hit.

 

[Vector]

If you could get Necas to sign for what he's actually worth and use the rest of those savings to sign someone like Demelo, then I'd be willing to listen. His contract projection is 7y/7.495m is even higher than Hronek's. Necas is still a promise of potential with only one season of actually realizing it. To me, he's far closer to a 5m.

 

[Nucker101]

No thanks to Kotka with that contract

 

[alternate]

Depends what you see as the window + how high you are on Lek. I see the window as now, I’m not that high on Lek, and packaging him with Mikheyev for a true top 6 winger to play with Pettersson while allowing us to retain Joshua and Blueger to play with Garland on the 3rd line is worth it to me. And you may be able to re-sign Ehlers depending on cap increases.

And what does Ehlers do to help with the window?

Put it this way, he has 2 more career playoff goals than Jake Virtanen. Hard pass on Ehlers, especially for our best (only?) top 6 forward prospect.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

The problem is he hasn't shown that yet and you're paying him a premium for upside that he's never shown.

Yeah, I'd be wary - Kotkaniemi is a young C, true, but Ilya freaking Mikheyev outperformed him offensively this year, and Kotkaniemi has a bunch more years on his contract. And there's some good reasons Canes fans want to move on.

I'm not totally closed to the idea of acquiring him to be a 3C, but a lot would depend on the return - and it would seem fairly obvious that Mikheyev would have to be involved going the other way.