Getty Vancouver Canucks after scoring a goal.
The Vancouver Canucks are entering a pivotal offseason that could mean getting over the hump next season or failing to capitalize on the 2023-24 improvement.
According to Thomas Drance and Harman Dayal of The Athletic, describing “A 10-Step Plan” for a perfect Canucks offseason on June 24, what Vancouver needs to do first and foremost is to “land a star, top-line-level winger.”
And if you’ve been paying attention, you probably already have an idea of who the authors had in mind when they wrote that: Jake Guentzel, Jonathan Marchessault, or Sam Reinhart.
“The Canucks’ dream acquisition this summer would be a star winger who can take some pressure off (Elias) Pettersson or (J.T.) Miller and give the top power-play unit a shot in the arm,” the authors wrote. “Winning the Jake Guentzel sweepstakes would be the most straightforward path to this, although Sam Reinhart and Jonathan Marchessault are also big-time scorers.
That’d be the most straightforward path toward acquiring talent, but the insiders also provided a few options that are seemingly available in trades assuming the Canucks can offer a good-enough package.
“The trade market could present top-of-the-lineup studs like Pavel Buchnevich, Nikolaj Ehlers, Mitch Marner, and Martin Necas,” they wrote.
Canucks Struggles on Offense Call for Forward Reinforcements
The Canucks ranked 24th in goals scored per game from the All-Star break until the end of the season. Only one of their wingers (Brock Boeser) scored more than 50 points for the Canucks in 2024. Conor Garland finished with 47 and Nils Hoglander scored 36.
The Vancouver centers, however, were good enough not to force the franchise to consider bringing new talent to bolster that position. Miller scored 103 points and fellow center Petterson potted 89.
“Just consider how many lackluster wingers got extended top-six opportunities,” the authors commented before listing a few struggling Canucks’ wingers. “Ilya Mikheyev played 466 five-on-five minutes with Elias Pettersson. Sam Lafferty logged nearly 175 minutes on Pettersson’s flank. Andrei Kuzmenko played nearly 250 minutes, too. Phil Di Giuseppe spent 241 five-on-five minutes alongside J.T. Miller. Pius Suter eventually became a top-line mainstay.”
Vancouver’s brass is aware of those issues, though, and that’s why the franchise has made Mikheyev available for trade. According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, reporting on June 14, the Canucks “have been working” on a trade ahead of the 2024 NHL draft and the offseason.
“The Canucks have been working to move Mikheyev since shortly after their playoff run concluded. They also offered him to teams around the trade deadline,” Seravalli wrote. “After a tough playoff, Mikheyev’s contract is gumming up the works on Vancouver’s offseason.”
If they can pull off the trade, and depending on the return, the Canucks will remove Mikheyev’s contract from their books and thus create $4.75 million of cap space.
Canucks Must ‘Avoid Committing Significant Salary & Term to Plan B’
Another key to the Canucks offseason will be not to surrender to lesser options if they fail to land that proverbial “star, top-line-level” winger named by the insiders.
Drance and Dayal’s second point in Vancouver’s to-do list touches on that, with the authors urging the Canucks to “Avoid committing significant salary or term to Plan B option if Plan A fails in unrestricted free agency.”
The insiders acknowledge free agency is “complicated and competitive” when it comes to “apex unrestricted free agents.” If Vancouver fails to land its No. 1 target, the authors think they shouldn’t overpay for an alternative, worse player to bolster their wing rotation and instead pay market-value money for such a player.
“It’s one thing to detonate your cap structure when chasing a risky unrestricted free-agent contract for a bona fide star,” they wrote. “If the Canucks find they’re only able to acquire good second-line players instead of top-of-the-lineup star contributors, prudence will be essential.”
Canucks Will Make ‘Strong Play’ for Hurricanes’ Jake Guentzel
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported the interest of the Canucks in signing perhaps the best free agent available in the 2024 offseason on June 18, naming Vancouver as a “strong” contender to land Guentzel.
“Expect the Vancouver Canucks to make a strong play for pending free agent forward Jake Guentzel,” Seravalli wrote. “They won’t be alone – as there are more than a handful of teams expected to be in the mix for the Stanley Cup-winning winger.”
Guentzel, 29, scored 30 goals and assisted 47 for 77 total points in 67 games during the 2023-24 season. In the playoffs, he added nine points in 11 games.
Evolving Hockey projects Guentzel to get a $9.6 million AAV contract over seven years. Dom Luszczyszyn’s Net Rating model projects Guentzel to get $9.9 million per year. Vancouver is projected to enter the offseason with $16.8 million of cap space.