Vancouver Canucks: More to a Season than Just the Playoffs
By David Joun
Storyline No. 3: Re-signing Baertschi, Etem, and Vey?
Yes, the offseason means that Dan Hamhuis, Brandon Prust, Radim Vrbata, Yannick Weber, and Matt Bartkowski (oh no! What about Beth Bartkowski?) are all going to hit unrestricted free agency.
Also previously discussed, it means that guys like Andrey Pedan, Taylor Fedun, Alex Grenier, Mike Zalewski, and Ronalds Kenins are going to hit either unrestricted free agency or restricted free agency. All five mentioned above are 24 years old or younger, with the exception of Fedun, who is set to hit the UFA market as a 27-year-old.
But has anyone thought of how much raise that Sven Baertschi, Emerson Etem, and Linden Vey might demand? The three are all coming up on their RFA status. The combined cap hit of the three this year? $2.75 million.
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You can bet my life that those three will demand a sum of more than just $2.75 million for their next contracts.
Just kicking around some numbers, the figure rises to $5 million pretty quickly.
Vey would take a minor raise from his $1 million. Etem would take just a minor raise too, similar to the one-year contract Baertschi inked last year following the trade from Calgary. But Baertschi’s next contract would probably be at least two years long and at least at $2 million per year. And there it is, the three are getting paid at least $4.5 million next year.
For the Vancouver Canucks who want to make a big splash at the Free Agent Frenzy, that is not good news. Of course, there is the option of not re-signing them in the first place. Should that happen, I can see the rights to Vey being dangled for a minor pick, if at all anything.
But regardless, Jim Benning has some re-signing to do, even if he chooses not to bring back some UFA veterans and the RFA prospects. And as far as I am concerned, no one really cared about re-signing and giving raises to Vey, Etem, and Baertschi.
Next: Storyline No. 4: Never Enough Prospects?