Should the Canucks re-sign Tanner Pearson or let him walk this offseason?

Life isn’t good for the Vancouver Canucks right now. They have lost four straight games and were blown out by the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1. The team looks so poor defensively and is very frustrating to watch. The team looks like a mess and general manager Jim Benning is on the hot seat.

If you take a look at Canucks Twitter right now, it’s just a cesspool of misery with each loss and more and more people are calling for Benning’s job with #FireBenning trending after every loss.

But let’s distract ourselves from the doom and gloom right now. One bright spot in this Canucks funk is that Tanner Pearson has five points in his last six games and eight points on the season.

He was acquired at the 2019 deadline from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Erik Gudbranson.

There was also this interesting fact about him from our site expert, Brayden Ursel.

After doing some fact-checking, I found that since the 2019 trade deadline on February 25, 2019, Pearson is tied with Bo Horvat in goals with 34 per the NHL’s stats page.

He has slotted in nicely on a line with Horvat and Nils Hoglander. They have pretty much been the best line for the Canucks this season.  They have a 59.70% corsi for percentage, an expected goals for percentage of 60.63% and a high danger corsi for percentage of 58.54%.

Pearson has spoken about his future, per Daily Hive’s Rob Williams.

Pearson so far this season

This season, Pearson has been one of the better Canucks. He might not be the best but he has been a bright spot. He is sixth in Canucks scoring with eight points.

With Horvat and Hoglander, he has been helping provide the offence. He even scored this greasy goal against the Leafs. This shows that one of his best assets is his net-front presence.

It is on display once again here.

Pearson displays a good shot, makes good passes and has solid hockey sense and plays well in his own end too.

On the fancy stats side, he hasn’t been too bad either. Pearson so far owns a 50.68% corsi, a 50.02% expected goals, a 49.32% high danger chances for, and a 58.82% high danger goals for.

Pearson is a decent second-line winger who can provide some offence and has looked great with Horvat and Hoglander. The question is, should the Canucks re-sign him in the offseason?

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Should he stay or should he go?

Pearson is 28 and in the prime of his career. He is coming off a four-year contract worth $3,750,000 per season. There is a chance that he could be asking for a raise, which is understandable because he has been a solid 20 goal, 40 point player the last few seasons.

The Canucks have a projected cap space of $22.86 million this offseason. A large chunk of that could be going to Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, whose entry level deals are expiring.

Adam Gaudette and Thatcher Demko are also RFAs and Alex Edler, Jordie Benn and Brandon Sutter are UFAs, although I doubt we will see any of those three return, but I could be wrong.

So, the Canucks would definitely be prioritizing Pettersson and Hughes as well as Demko and Gaudette. Vasili Podkolzin will also be stepping into the NHL next season.

Pearson’s secondary scoring is something the team really needs in the future. Even if he is playing in the bottom six, he could still provide some offence. He is still in the prime of his career so a three or another four-year deal at the right price could make sense, but a large chunk of the cap will likely go to Pettersson and Hughes.

Let us know in the comments if Pearson should stay or not!

*All stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.