When all is said and done this offseason, the Vancouver Canucks could very well lose standout winger Brock Boeser for free after failing to agree to a trade with another team by the March 7 NHL trade deadline.
But, if the Canucks can get bold enough and have a good sense of where Boeser's free agent market, they can still salvage their unseemly deadline blunder.
To do this, the Canucks only need to look as far back as June 9, 2023, when the New Jersey Devils signed veteran defenseman Damon Severson to an eight-year contract extension, then traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 2023 third-round pick.
That 2023 third-round pick was later packaged with young forward Yegor Sharangovich and sent to the Calgary Flames for Tyler Toffoli, who didn't even last a full season in New Jersey before being dealt to the Winnipeg Jets ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. But that's besides the point.
The crux of the story is essentially that, yes, the Canucks can trade Boeser to a team that wants to sign him to an eight-year contract and a guarantee that he will, in fact, sign with them.
Because they still hold Boeser's rights, the Canucks are the only team that can sign Boeser to an eight-year contract. Under the current NHL collective bargaining agreement, Boeser can sign a contract with a maximum length of seven years in free agency.
It is this key advantage that gives the Canucks a nominal amount of leverage heading into free agency. Severson was dealt by the Devils three weeks before the start of free agency after New Jersey identified a hot market and a team willing to pay to guarantee Severson's signature.
Canucks GM Patrik Allvin will certainly not be feeling too hot about how he handled Boeser at the deadline, but with the hand he's been dealt, he has few other options with respect to keeping the Canucks even remotely competitive going forward.