Offseason Review: Vancouver Canucks

Now that the dust has settled on a wild NHL offseason, let's take a look at how each team did in regards to drafting and free-agent signings. Today, we'll look at the Vancouver Canucks.

Vancouver's rough year last season is a tough one to analyze. They weren't playing particularly well to start the season, in part due to shakiness on the backend from new goaltender Braden Holtby and Calder nominee Quinn Hughes. Then Elias Pettersson's year ended after only 26 games when he suffered a wrist injury that kept him out until the season's end. Then, to top it off, the whole team went through a rough bout of Covid that condensed the final stretch of their season and no doubt knocked some of the wind out of their sails to boot. It's not hard to see why the team that made the play-in round in 2020 as the 3rd seed in the Pacific, and then rallied to go on a bit of a run, wouldn't repeat a similar playoff appearance in 2021. The question is now: how much change needs to happen to get this team back to the post-season? GM Jim Benning has some young star players needing contracts as well, let's see how he did.

Free Agency:

The biggest piece of work that's being talked about inside and outside of Vancouver is the trade between the Canucks and Coyotes which saw Benning finally offload the Loui Eriksson contract, along with Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel, and 3 draft picks - a 2021 1st, a 2022 2nd, and a 2023 7th - in exchange for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland. Garland would later be extended for 4 years. Nate Schmidt was then traded to Winnipeg, freeing up a spot at 2LD for Ekman-Larson to play. These deals unquestionably bolster the Canucks' top 6 group. Garland is a good offensive player already, and guys often see their scoring increase upon leaving Arizona. Ekman-Larson is a harder call. He used to be an elite two-way defender; it's what earned him his giant 8-year $8.25 million contract. His play has fallen off significantly in his last couple of years though, and he was quickly leapfrogged by Jakob Chycurn in Arizona. Can he bounce back in Vancouver? Possibly, but all he really needs to do is play better than Schmidt did and he'll be fine. He's probably never going to earn that contract, but neither was Eriksson. At least Ekman-Larsson fills a role in Vancouver.

The Canucks also traded a 2022 3rd-round pick for Jason Dickinson, who signed with them for three years, and then Vancouver went to work in free agency. Both defencemen, Travis Hamonic re-signed for two years, and former Canuck Luke Schenn returns to the team, also for two years. Dmen Brad Hunt and Brady Keeper signed for one year, and Tucker Poolman signed for four years. Jaroslav Halak was signed for one year to backup now-full-time starter Thatcher Demko. Brandon Sutter was re-signed for one more year, and free-agent forwards Phillipp Di Giuseppe and Justin Dowling signed on one- and two-year contracts respectively. RFA Olli Juolevi was also re-signed for one year.

The Canucks then signed Sheldon Rempal, Sheldon Dries, John Stevens, Devante Stephens, Nic Petan, Guillaume BriseBois, and Justin Bailey to one-year two-way contracts, and Kyle Burroughs signed a two-year two-way contract. The Canucks are still waiting to announce new contracts for both Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, which will likely eat up their remaining cap space.

Grace: B+; This was almost full marks for the Canucks this summer, who completely revamped their blueline and bolstered their top 6 and bottom 6 forwards, but the lack of new contracts for their biggest name players so close to the start of training camp, as well as taking such a big gamble on Ekman-Larsson and his monster contract, brings with it come cause for concern. Still, for the most part this was an excellent free agent summer for Vancouver.

Draft: 

The Canucks gave up their 1st-round pick this year in the trade that brought them Garland and Ekman-Larsson, and gave up their 3rd to bring in Jason Dickinson. Given those deals, the only pick the Canucks made in the top 100 was 41st overall. 

There they drafted Danila Klimovich, a forward out of Belarus. Standing 6'1" and playing centre, Klimovich is a smooth skater who plays with a violent edge. He can streak in between defenders and likes to cut up the middle of the ice. He makes smart plays off the puck and forchecks with a hard and heavy presence, and he loves to throw his weight around. He was second on his team in scoring and 16th in scoring overall in the Belarus Vysshaya league, putting up 28 goals and 52 points in 37 games, adding another 9 goals and 14 points in 12 playoff games. Klimovich promptly signed his entry-level contract with Vancouver a few days after the draft.

Grade: C; The trades Vancouver made with their missing picks were, for the most part, good ones. That doesn't change the fact that they did little to stock the cupboards for coming years. Klimovich looks like a player, no question, but when he's all you get there's a lot riding on him making the NHL. They have a couple rookies looking to crack the lineup this season, with Vasily Podkolzin looking like he could break in out of training camp, but beyond that, there isn't much help coming from the rookie pipeline for the Canucks.

Overall grade: B-; Mostly great work done by Jim Benning in free-agency will help this Canucks team start to compete for the playoffs again this season, but the cost of that is weak drafting, which has been the story in Vancouver for a couple years now. Plenty to like going into the season for Canucks' fans, but also some concerns for the team's future down the road.

What do you think about Jim Benning's work this summer?

Photo credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports