Just three of Canucks’ current defencemen are signed for next season
The Vancouver Canucks could experience a ton of change on their blue line before the start of next season. As it stands right now, they have just three regular NHL defencemen signed past the end of this year.
- Quinn Hughes: $7.85 million through 2026-27
- Carson Soucy: $3.25 million through 2025-26
- Noah Juulsen: $775,000 through through 2024-25
Other potential NHL-quality defencemen signed past this season include Tucker Poolman — who will almost certainly never play again due to health issues — and Guillaume Brisebois, who has struggled to break into the lineup full-time.
The future prospects of their right-side defence look especially barren with just Juulsen, who has never played more than 23 NHL games in a season, signed for one more year.
The Canucks have done an impressive job at revamping their defence over the last 12 months. They currently sit second in the NHL in goals-against per game, a vast improvement on the 25th that they finished last season.
The majority of the players who have been at least partially responsible for that improvement are going to need new contracts. Filip Hronek, Nikita Zadorov, Tyler Myers, and Ian Cole will all be free agents, with only Hronek being a restricted free agent. These players are going to be able to point to the team’s strong results during negotiations.
Current projections have the Canucks with roughly $32 million in cap space for next season. They’ll need to use that money to not only address their defence, but also sign free-agent forwards such as Elias Pettersson, Sam Lafferty, Dakota Joshua, and Teddy Blueger.
Another factor to consider is the dead cap commitment the Canucks have for next season. While the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout cost the team just over $146,000 against the cap this season, that number jumps to roughly $2.35 million next year. That’s more than $2 million extra that will go towards paying the Florida Panthers defenceman, making it more difficult to re-sign all of their pending free agents.
Fortunately, the Canucks will unlock some savings with a player like Myers. Any potential extension given to the 33-year-old will not come close to his current cap hit of $6 million. However, they’ll also need to give major raises to improved players such as Hronek, who will command much more than the $4.4 million he made this year.
Figuring how best to advance with this defence corps will be a tricky task for general manager Patrik Allvin. However, all of the expiring contracts do give him a lot of freedom to mold the group in his vision. The trick, as always, will be to do it while making the most of every dollar beneath the salary cap.
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