The Vancouver Canucks know what they want headed into free agency.
General manager Patrik Allvin spoke to the media today and discussed the team’s plans as they prepare for one of the busiest times of year.
The Canucks recently cleared out a lot of cap space by trading Ilya Mikheyev and while they spent a lot of it by re-signing Dakota Joshua and Tyler Myers, they still enter free agency with enough money to make a splash.
“I hope this will give us a chance to be in the market for a potential top-six [winger], or even more options with the flexibility we have,” said Allvin about his team’s cap situation today.
A top-six winger has been near the top of the team’s desires for a while now. Allvin made that clear at his exit interview in May, and that clearly hasn’t changed.
The Canucks have been linked to star Jake Guentzel, but even if they don’t manage to land the two-time 40-goal scorer, there are other solid options such as Tyler Toffoli, Jonathan Marchessault, and others who could fit the bill.
A winger is not the only hole on the Canucks depth chart at the moment. The news that Nikita Zadorov is going to test free agency means that they need another defenceman as well.
“I can’t overpay one single player, and Nikita Zadorov was extremely good for us in the playoffs and a character guy,” said Allvin. “We did our best, and he decided that he wanted to go somewhere else.”
The organization seems content with Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Carson Soucy, and Tyler Myers as a top-four defence group for next year.
“Regarding our back end, I believe talking to the coaches that the preference of having the top-four defencemen we have now was something they had [outlined] as preference to me coming out after the season,” continued Allvin.
“Locking Tyler Myers up was something that was really important for us.”
It seems that while the Canucks could go after a third-pairing defenceman, they’re not looking for another top contributor on the blue line in free agency. However, a lot can change between now and when free agency opens on Monday.