Canucks: Some pending free agents should take one-year deals

Some of the Vancouver Canucks’ pending free agents should consider taking one-year deals this offseason.

Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning is about to endure perhaps his most pivotal offseason yet.

With limited cap space, he has to try and re-sign starting goalie Jacob Markstrom and top-four blueliner Chris Tanev, both pending UFAs. Veteran defenceman Oscar Fantenberg and forward Tyler Toffoli are also set to hit the free agent market, although it’s quite unlikely Benning will re-sign either of them.

Troy Stecher, Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette are all pending RFAs, and they’re due for nice raises on their next deals.

There’s obviously no way that Benning will be able to retain all of them. It’s likely that he’ll lose at least one of Markstrom and Tanev. It will be difficult to fit the three RFAs noted above under his cap, so Benning will have to get creative.

But some of Vancouver’s pending free agents might be wise to take one-year deals this offseason, and not just for the sake of helping the team’s salary cap situation.

Given the future uncertainties amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s safe to believe that some teams won’t be as aggressive in the free agent market. Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller noted how MLB stands to endure “one of the coldest free-agent markets in years.”

Sources suggested to Miller that Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts — widely regarded as a top-three player in baseball today — may take a one-year deal and then look to max out the following year.

Don’t think for a second that this will only apply to baseball. This will likely be the case for many NHL free agents, too. Markstrom and Tanev are both 30 years of age, and teams may be hesitant to throw out lucrative long-term deals to the both of them.

If the market is cold for players like Markstrom and Tanev, they would be wise to take one-year pacts (be it from Vancouver or somebody else) in an effort to further reset their markets for 2021 free agency.

Given that he’s only 26 years of age, Stecher should get a multi-year deal from somebody, hopefully the Canucks. Both Virtanen and Gaudette haven’t quite hit their full ceilings yet, so they should settle on one or two-year deals in order to set themselves up for bigger extensions down the road.

We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out — if the 2019-20 season resumes and when free agency begins. But several of the Canucks’ pending free agents should definitely think about the idea of taking one-year deals with the chance to further enhance their market values for 2021.