4 takeaways from the beginning of free agency for the Canucks

4) An enforced cautious approach

The Canucks were among the best positioned teams heading into free agency. As previously noted, they had $24,078,333 of projected cap space, which was the eighth-highest amount in the NHL.

With being in such a healthy financial position, the Canucks were well-placed to make a strong run at some of the bigger names and be able to offer lucrative deals. However, as we've already noted, this hasn't necessarily worked out as planned; aside from missing out on Guentzel (unfortunate) and Lindholm (not so much), Allvin also wasn't able to convince Nikita Zadorov to re-sign in Vancouver.

As a result, the overall battle plan from the Canucks has been a cautious approach, albeit not necessarily by design. The result has been signings such as Danton Heinen at two years and $4.5 million, Kiefer Sherwood for two years and $3 million, and Derek Forbort at one year and $1.5 million.

Now throw in the recent re-signings of defencemen Dakota Joshua (four years, $13 million) and Tyler Myers (three years, $9 million). As a result, the Canucks find themselves in a position of having pretty much filled out the roster but now only having, as per Cap Friendly, $240,833 of projected cap space left for next season.

Ultimately, it's tough to argue with the results of the Canucks' approach to free agency so far; they have tried to target some big names, while also getting plenty of players (re-signed and free agents alike) on team-friendly deals. Whether they've done enough to have actually improve the overall strength of the roster however, is open to debate at this stage.

For his part, Allvin seems happy enough with what the organisation has accomplished so far. As per Chris Faber on the official team site, Allvin said: "July 1st is an interesting day, but it's also a scary day. I think we were pretty good here today in terms of managing our money and getting hopefully good value out of the players we got."

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