Are Canucks going to sign Cole and Soucy in free agency?
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There is no shortage of rumours on the eve of the start of NHL free agency, and that includes the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks have over $6.4 million in projected cap space, according to CapFriendly.com, following the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout. That number rises to more than $12.1 million if Tanner Pearson ($3.25 million) and Tucker Poolman ($2.5 million) remain on LTIR.
The most pressing need is on defence, where Vancouver has just three players under contract that were NHL regulars last season: Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, and Tyler Myers.
Ethan Bear can still return, although he wasn’t given a qualifying offer by the Canucks today. Bear is free to sign elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent, but he’ll also be unavailable until December as he recovers from shoulder surgery.
All signs point to the Canucks spending money in free agency to help fix their blue line, although this year’s crop of UFA defencemen isn’t exactly flush with talent.
During an interview on Sekeres and Price today, Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK reiterated the team’s interest in two pending UFA defencemen, Carson Soucy and Ian Cole.
“The Canucks will be looking for help on the PK when they go shopping tomorrow at nine o’clock,” Dhaliwal told hosts Matt Sekeres and Jeff Paterson. “Soucy and Cole… I’m expecting the Canucks to be in on both players big tomorrow. I’m expecting two-, three-year deals, around $3 million is what I’m hearing.”
"Soucy & Cole…expecting the #Canucks to be in on both players big tomorrow…2-3 year deals, around $3M is what I'm hearing, the scuttlebutt…Soucy, Vancouver makes a lot of sense for him. He's on my radar."@BestBuyCanada | https://t.co/RAcqGZaqYM
— Sekeres and Price (@sekeresandprice) June 30, 2023
Neither Cole nor Soucy is a big driver of offence, with Cole scoring 17 points last season and Soucy contributing 16 points. The Canucks are likely searching for stability on the back end, following years of erratic play defensively, and the pair of left-shot defencemen could check that box.
They also need to fix their woeful penalty kill, which was a league-worst 71.6% last season and tied for second-last (74.9%) in 2021-22.
Cole is a 34-year-old defenceman that won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, so his connection to Canucks management is clear. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound blueliner was a top-four defenceman with the Tampa Bay Lightning last season, playing 19:23 per game, and was one of their most relied-upon penalty killers.
Soucy is younger, at age 28, but is less accomplished. The 6-foot-5 defender was a sixth defenceman in Seattle last season, though he was a regular on the Kraken penalty kill.
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