Tyler Myers is one pending free agent who won't give the Canucks trouble

We've written ad nauseam about the financial challenges the Vancouver Canucks face this coming offseason. About how general manager Patrik Allvin and company have their work cut out when it comes to keep the core of this roster together, and indeed improving it.

On the one hand yes, as per CapFriendly, the Canucks have the eight-most projected cap space available in the NHL, at $23,778,333. In fact if you include the likelihood that the final year of Tucker Poolman's contract of $2.5 million will be attributed to Long-Term Injured Reserve in 2024-25, the projected cap space figure increases to $26,278,333.

However, on the other hand there is the challenge of the Canucks having nine unrestricted and two restricted pending free agents on the roster to deal with. This includes the likes of Elias Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, Casey DeSmith, Arturs Silovs, Dakota Joshua and Flip Hronek.

We've already opined about how the Canucks need to face to the reality that Lindholm likely won't be back next season. Also, about how contract talks have reportedly stalled with Zadorov and his agent.

Some more encouraging news for the Canucks

Overall, it's certainly a concerning time for Canucks fans, who are understandably hoping this season wasn't a one-off; that Allvin can indeed put the team in a position to become a consistent contender over the long term. Along these lines, it isn't all bad news when it comes to the pending free agents, at least when it comes to Tyler Myers.

The positivity comes from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, during Wednesday's 32 Thoughts Podcast with Jeff Marek. More specifically, around the 35:04 mark Friedman claims that Canucks management are optimistic they will figure out an extension with Myers.

One of the main reasons for this optimism, is there will conceivably be a significant drop on the annual value of the five-year, $30 million contract Myers signed to come to Vancouver in the first place. Although we won't go as far as some of the speculation doing the rounds, suggesting the annual value on any multi-year deal will be halved to $3 million.

Myers coming off his best season in Vancouver

This would of course be excellent news for everyone concerned, even allowing for the age of the 34-year-old and him arguably being one of the Canucks' less pressing concerns. Regardless, it would be a step in the right direction in keeping together the roster which produced the third-most regular season points in team history.

This past season was the best of Myers' five campaigns in Vancouver, despite averaging a career-low average ice-time of 18:57. Among other things, he produced his most assists since 2017-18, his most combined points since 2018-19 and the best +/- rating of his 15 seasons in the NHL.

For his part, the 2008 12th overall draft pick has made no secret of his desire to return to Vancouver next season. During his end of season presser, he said: "Yeah I would love to. What we've been able to build here the last year and a half, I think it's really special to be a part of. It's an unbelievable city, the fans were quite amazing in the playoffs. It was something special stepping out for every game and I would love to be back."

In fairness, a lot of the pending free agents echoed similar sentiments about this past season in Vancouver, how special it was and how amazing the fans were. At this stage however though, Myers appears to be one of the few who will actually be back and signed for the 2024-25 campaign.

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