The Canuck Way Mailbag: Pearson, expansion, next season, more

Mailbag part 2

https://twitter.com/Macusian12345/status/1380639343967006721

Free agent signings are most likely not in the cards for the Canucks this offseason. After signing Pearson and Thatcher Demko to new deals recently, Vancouver’s cap space has shrunk and they still have two elite players to sign.

As mentioned above, Pettersson and Hughes are going to earn north of 16 million combined, and that comes before locking up other roster spots. There are multiple holes in the bottom-six that need filling, and the Canucks don’t have a single NHL defender signed beyond Tyler Myers and Nate Schmidt.

Fingers crossed that Benning has some inside knowledge going into the offseason that the people are unaware of at this point. Micheal Ferland could remain on the LTIR, and the same thing could be said for Jay Beagle. It’s all speculation, but maybe Loui Eriksson decides to call it quits, freeing up another $6 million.

I don’t know anything more than that, but I would say the Canucks will have enough difficulty re-signing all of their own players let alone dipping their toes into the free agent market. If I was to put my money on it, I’d say Vancouver does very little in free agency this year.

This is something I started throwing around on The PP1 Podcast this season. Putting Pettersson, Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller down the middle would make Vancouver one of the deepest teams at the centre position.

And now that the Canucks locked up Pearson, I believe Vancouver will have the depth going into next season to make it work. Nils Hoglander exceeded expectations in his rookie campaign. Vasili Podkolzin is expected to make an impact at the NHL level next year, and keeping Pearson gives the Canucks three solid scoring lines.

For me, yes. It’s something I would love to see the Canucks try out, but I would probably wait until next year to make it a long-term thing. Playoff teams with depth at centre go a long way and they often win Stanley Cups, so I’m all for moving Miller to centre full-time. Just wait until next year.

Leading off of the last question above, I could see the 2021-22 opening night roster looking something like this (Seattle Expansion Draft not taken into consideration):

Vasili Podkolzin – Elias Pettersson – Brock Boeser
Tanner Pearson – Bo Horvat (C) – Nils Hoglander
Adam Gaudette – J.T. Miller (A) – Jake Virtanen
Tyler Motte – J. Beagle/K. Lind – Zack MacEwen

Quinn Hughes – Nate Schmidt
Alexander Edler – Tyler Myers
Olli Juolevi – _________

Thatcher Demko
Braden Holtby

Splitting up the ‘Lotto Line’ and moving Miller to centre gives the Canucks the best scoring top nine possible and it’s something that should be highly considered by the coaching staff in my opinion.

Of course, the Canucks would be expecting Podkolzin to hit at a similar pace to what Hoglander did this year, but it’s definitely a possibility. First-line minutes are likely a stretch for the young Russian, but he can be swapped into any of the four lines if needed.