Canucks want Teddy Blueger back but have more pressing needs

With July 1 fast approaching, the Vancouver Canucks have a lot of work to do in respect of their batch of pending free agents. At the time of writing, they have nine unrestricted and two restricted players to consider.

Among these, the list includes the likes of Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Dakota Joshua, Filip Hronek and Arturs Silovs. As such, a lot of Canucks fans would consider pending unrestricted free agent Teddy Blueger to not be quite on the same level of importance.

And you'd be right, at least according to the latest report from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Pagnotta writes that the Canucks do have interest in re-signing Blueger and have even spoken to his agent, but are apparently planning to circle back to the forward later on this month.

As we noted, Pagnotta explains that the reason for this does indeed relate to the Canucks considering the contract situations of Zadorov, Lindholm, Joshua and Hronek. At the same time however, this does not mean Blueger doesn't have value to the organisation.

Blueger more than proved his worth to the Canucks

The 2012 second round draft pick is coming off one of the best campaigns of his six seasons in the NHL. Among other things, he set a new personal best with 22 assists, tied his career high of 28 total points and recorded a +4 rating, while averaging 14:56 of ice time in 68 contests.

Overall, Blueger proved his value to the Canucks' bottom six, with the combination of his work ethic, speed and defensively game (which extends to his play on the penalty kill). And if there was any doubt as to how much he meant to the team, consider that he was one of 11 players who appeared in all 13 of their playoff games this season.

In respect of potential financial compensation, the 29-year-old earned $1.9 million in 2023-24 with the Canucks and is in line to earn more. However, you would like to think his asking price will still be one of the more reasonable ones which the Canucks can deal with, when considering some of the other players they have to try and negotiate with.

While it makes sense that the Canucks want to bring back Zadorov, Lindholm and other bigger names, certain sacrifices will need to be made in order to get under the salary cap for next season. Along these lines, they would be best served not to leave it too long before circling back to Blueger to try and agree a new deal.

Still in respect of the Canucks, Pagnotta also mentioned the recent optimism about the Canucks being able to agree a contract extension with Tyler Myers. Pagnotta writes that while both sides are interested in agreeing a new deal, they have only just started talking and the speculation is all just noise at this point.

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