Vancouver Canucks rumours: Nyquist, Benn, Nemeth, and Myers

Yesterday was the first day of the unrestricted free agent interview period, and the Vancouver Canucks are rumoured to be interested in a few players.

As expected, the Vancouver Canucks are off to a very busy start to their offseason. They acquired a top-six forward in the form of J.T. Miller at the draft over the weekend, but questions still remain regarding their top six and the team’s blue line.

Let’s just jump right into the rumours. The players that Vancouver is reportedly interested in all seem like they could be good pickups — with the right contract of course. Gustav Nyquist is a player I would love to see added to the Canucks top six, as it would provide Elias Pettersson with another Swedish player to befriend, and most importantly, would provide the team with more secondary scoring.

That’s something you’re going to continue to hear a lot from me, secondary scoring. All throughout the season, I’ve been talking about how badly the team needs to address the lack of secondary scoring. Adding Miller is a step in the right direction, but adding Nyquist will certainly solidify the Canucks’ top six forward group.

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Bo Horvat with Tanner Pearson and Nyquist. Pettersson and Brock Boeser with Miller. Those are some good lines, and any of those wingers, with maybe the exception of Pearson, can play first line minutes no problem. Having too many talented forwards is a good problem to have, and it’s a problem that the Canucks haven’t had in a long time.

Aside from Nyquist, the Canucks are also rumoured to be interested in Victoria native Jordie Benn. Benn is a durable and responsible stay at home defenceman who rarely makes mistakes in his own end. If the Canucks are interested in him, he would add to the team’s defence depth, but might open the door for a Ben Hutton trade. (Which yes, I’m still relatively opposed to.)

Additionally, the Canucks also seem to be interested in Patrik Nemeth, another defenceman. Much like Benn, Nemeth is a left-handed shot, who is responsible in his own end. Both are defensive defencemen. It would be interesting to see if the Canucks go after either of these two because I’m completely fine with allowing Hutton to start the year on the third pairing while we wait for the arrival of Olli Juolevi. No problems with that, so it will be interesting to see how the cookie crumbles if the Canucks sign a left-handed defenceman.

Finally, we all knew the team is heavily interested in acquiring Tyler Myers, and according to multiple sources, Myers met with Francesco Aquilini, Jim Benning, and Travis Green last night, as the Canucks brass made their free agency pitch to the big right shot defenceman.

Free agency is fast approaching and the rumours will only continue right up until July 1st. Out of the four players mentioned, who are you most interested in the Canucks signing? Let me know in the comments section below! For me, it’s definitely Nyquist. I would love to see more help in the scoring department.