Re-signing Tanner Pearson was a fatal mistake by the Canucks
By Bill Huan
The Vancouver Canucks’ salary cap constraints will likely result in another missed playoff appearance next season, and re-signing pending UFA Tanner Pearson might have been the final nail in that coffin.
The team extended Pearson yesterday to a three-year deal that pays him $3.25 million per season, which means that Vancouver is now left with barely any cap space to fill out the rest of their roster for next year.
According to CapFriendly, the team will only have around $10 million to work with to sign eight players if we assume that Loui Eriksson stays in the minors and Jay Beagle and Micheal Ferland are both put on LTIR. This also includes the best-case scenario of having Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes only take up $14 million in cap space, when in reality they’ll likely be closer to $16 million.
Don’t get me wrong, Pearson is a useful middle-six player who’s also a good locker room presence, but this contract just isn’t worth it for the Canucks.
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Why? Well, this team won’t be ready to compete until at least the 2022-23 season, and by that point, Pearson will be 30 and on the downside of his career. In fact, he’s already declined this year, with only 11 points in 33 games.
Extending a player of his calibre should’ve only happened if the Canucks knew that their window to win is within the next few seasons, and that just isn’t the case with this team. As I mentioned before, this leaves them with about $10 million left to add eight more players for next season, so you can definitely wave bye to the 2022 playoffs.
More importantly, this offseason will provide plenty of opportunities for Vancouver to sign players to bargain contracts, which is what many teams did last summer. It’s very possible that there will be skaters who can produce at a similar clip to Pearson for a third of his price, like a Dominik Kahun or Conor Sheary. They have 10 and 14 points, respectively, in 32 games played this season, and have cap hits that are less than $1 million.
Neither of them has the experience or resume of Pearson, but they can provide 80% of his value for a third of the price, so why are the Canucks so willing to shell out $3.25 million a year for Pearson? The answer is, they shouldn’t be. Especially when he’s already experienced declines and could very well become a negative asset if his game continues to drop off.
This is also why Vancouver should’ve done everything in its power to try and trade him before the deadline, even if the return would’ve been underwhelming. And if they had failed to find Pearson a new home, the Canucks should’ve just let him walk in free agency rather than re-sign him; this contract has automatically become a negative asset for a team that’s already filled with over-bloated deals.
Next. The Canucks will miss the playoffs next year due to their cap constraints. dark
But what do you think, Canucks fans? Should the team have re-signed Pearson? Let us know in the comments below!