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The Canuck Way Mailbag: Holtby, the defence, free agency, more

By Matthew Zator

EDMONTON, ALBERTA - AUGUST 30: Tyler Toffoli #73 of the Vancouver Canucks is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period in Game Four of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on August 30, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
EDMONTON, ALBERTA - AUGUST 30: Tyler Toffoli #73 of the Vancouver Canucks is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period in Game Four of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on August 30, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Vancouver Canucks players Chris Tanev and Bo Horvat celebrate a goal (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images).
Vancouver Canucks players Chris Tanev and Bo Horvat celebrate a goal (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images). /

Free agency has officially begun and the Vancouver Canucks are not doing that well so far. With that said, here’s another edition of the mailbag!

The Vancouver Canucks entered free agency with a few key free agents to sign. We are only a day in, and they have lost Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev, and Louis Domingue to the Calgary Flames, and Troy Stecher to the Detroit Red Wings. The only player they have signed so far is goaltender Braden Holtby, who will assume the 1a/b role alongside Thatcher Demko.

The right side of the defence has been decimated in the past 24 hours with the losses of Stecher and Tanev. Benning was in on Tyson Barrie before he signed with the Edmonton Oilers, and could turn his sights on Alex Pietrangelo now that Torey Krug has taken his place with the St Louis Blues. If the Canucks are going to improve next season, they have to at least replace Tanev on the blueline.

There are obviously more moves to be made before this defence is ready for the grind of the 2020-21 season, so as free agency rolls on, let’s get to some of your questions for this week’s edition of The Canuck Way mailbag!

https://twitter.com/Macusian12345/status/1314693068696637440?s=20

I think Benning made the right move not re-signing Markstrom and replacing him with Holtby instead. I don’t think the money was the sticking point at all, it was the term. He wanted upwards of six years, and the Canucks just didn’t want to commit to him for that length of time. With Demko on the verge of becoming an NHL starting goaltender, they didn’t want to give Markstrom the reins for that long and risk losing him.

Letting Stecher go was also a good move since he probably would have been awarded a contract in the $3-4 million range in arbitration. What I didn’t understand was the resulting deal he got with the Red Wings. If $1.7 million in average annual value (AAV) was all he was looking for, why couldn’t the Canucks match it? That makes me believe that he wasn’t valued too highly as someone they wanted back in the fold.

The Tyler Toffoli situation is an interesting one, as I believe the Canucks should be all-in on him now that Tanev and Markstrom are not options anymore. However, with how much the defence has weakened in the past day, maybe Benning should be focused more on that right now. Toffoli doesn’t look like he’s in a rush to sign with anyone, so Benning could have time to circle back to him. On the other hand, with how much the Flames seem to love former Canucks this free agency period, he could end up signing with them.

As for other signings, the Canucks really don’t have a lot of choices in free agency left, especially when it comes to right-side defencemen. Pietrangelo, Sami Vatanen, and Zach Bogosian are the only real top-four options available, and only one is a legitimate difference-maker. If I was Benning, I would go hard after Pietrangelo at this point. If not him, Vatanen could also turn out to be a good fit.

Replacing Markstrom with the experience and pedigree of Holtby was a great move. It was made even greater with the two-year term at $4.3 million AAV. I admit I wasn’t a fan of signing him at first, but that was when I thought he would be demanding upwards of $6 million AAV.

As for Holtby’s struggles last season, I think that’s a blip on the radar for him. In the seven seasons before that, he hovered around a 2.50 goals against average (GAA), a .917 save percentage, and 30-40 wins per season. If he can return to that form, the Canucks will have one of the best goaltending tandems in the NHL.

Under the goaltender whisperer that is Ian Clark, Holtby may even get stronger. He was one of the primary reasons Holtby signed in Vancouver, after all. Markstrom is his most recent star pupil after he turned Sergei Bobrovsky into an elite goaltender. We will see if Markstrom can keep his MVP form in Calgary without his all-star teacher by his side, as it didn’t work out too well for Clark’s former number one student when he signed with the Florida Panthers in 2019.

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